Humanity's Retaliation (Suspended)
by The Lord of Silence
Summary: The Uprising is over and Historia has been crowned Queen of Althand. Now it looks like the time may have finally come for the impossible to be achieved: the reclaiming of Wall Maria. But of course, it is unlikely that the Titans will give up their way into the human world without a fight. Battle, bloodshed and truth await Matthias and his comrades, in Shiganshina.
1. The Story so Far

Hello and welcome to the third part of Humanity's Struggle. I'm afraid that I have to start things off with some bad news for those of you who followed my last two stories. My publishing rate is going to have to go down from every day to once or twice a week. I'm about to go into exams at school so I can't afford to put too much time into writing at the moment. Hopefully there shouldn't be any points where I drop off and don't post for a week or more and things should be able to return to normal once I'm on holiday in four weeks time. Until then posts will be on Sundays and perhaps Wednesdays.

The Story so far:

In the Year 845 Bertolt Hoover and Reiner Braun in the forms of the Colossal and Armoured Titans respectively attacked the outlier city of Shiganshina, breaching Wall Maria and opening the way for the Titans to drive mankind back into the confines of Wall Rose. Four ten year old children, Eren Yeager, Matthias Quinn, Armin Arlert and Mikasa Ackerman experienced the horror of the Titans assault on that day and Eren's mother was devoured. The four decided to join the cadets in order to become members of the Military, specifically the Scout Regiment.

Five years later and the newly graduated Cadets of 104th were forced to fight to defend the City of Trost when Bertolt slipped away from the other cadets and launched the assault on the city. During the fighting Eren was thought devoured by the Titans, only to emerge several hours later from the fallen body of the Berserker Titan. This revealed Eren's incredible ability to summon and control a titan body as a titan shifter and a member of one of the ancient blood lines. This ability was used to reseal the breach to the gate of Trost. During the battle Matthias discovered the true identity of his lover Krista Lenz to be Historia Riess, the illegitimate child of Rod Riess, a nobleman from the interior. Matthias also experienced strange flashbacks on two separate occasions during the fighting.

After the Battle Eren was temporarily assigned to the Scout Regiment under the direct watch of Captain Levi Ackerman and his Special Operations Squad. A group of the 104th Cadets, including Jean, Armin, Mikasa, Matthias, Historia, Ymir, Reiner, Bertolt, Sasha and Connie chose to join the Scout Regiment and thus participated in the ill fated 57th exterior scouting mission. The Regiment came under attack from the Female Titan piloted (though this was unknown to the soldiers at the time) by Annie Leonhart, a fellow member of the 104th.

An attempt was made by the Scout's leader Major-General Erwin Smith to capture the Female Titan, but it proved unsuccessful. As a result Eren was barely rescued from her and the entirety of the Special Operations Squad bar Captain Levi was lost. The Scouts withdrew back to the Walls in a dejected state. On the mission Matthias discovered a unique ability to hear the thoughts of titans, including the Female Titan. Partially utilising information gained with this power Armin was able to deduce Annie Leonhart's identity.

The Scouts attempted to lure her into an underground trap within the interior city of Stohess. She anticipated the attempt however and transformed in the street. The ensuing battle clicked into place several previously suppressed memories in Matthias which allowed him transform into the Sentinel Titan in order to fight the Female Titan, thus revealing him to be yet another titan shifter. The combined efforts of both the Sentinel and Berserker Titans were able to defeat the Female Titan and Annie Leonhart imprisoned herself in a giant impenetrable crystal.

Matthias confirmed from his mother that he had been found by both her and his missing father emerging from a titan body in the woods when he was five years old. He had lost his memory for reasons unknown and the couple adopted him as their child.

The alarm was raised across the entire kingdom of Althand when word was received that Wall Rose had been breached at an unknown point, and that the Titans had gained entry. It was found however that these titans had seemingly appeared spontaneously within the Walls, probably due to the efforts of the mysterious Beast Titan. The Beast Titan attempted to capture Matthias and Eren during the small invasion but was unsuccessful.

It was then discovered that Reiner and Bertolt were the Armoured and Colossal Titans. The two of them transformed and tired to kidnap Eren and Matthias in order to take them out beyond the Walls to the person they served. Eren and Matthias were defeated when the Colossal Titan exploded and knocked both of them and all those in surrounding area unconscious. The two then attempted to escape, reaching the Forest of Giant Trees, halfway between Wall Rose and Wall Maria. After an extensive battle in which Eren discovered his ability to control titans with his will, Eren and Matthias were rescued, though numerous soldiers from all three regiments died.

Elements of the high ranking nobles then began to push to have Eren, Matthias and the now revealed Historia taken into custody. In order to prevent this they were sent out into a remote area of wilderness, but came under attack from a force of Military Police wearing Anti-Personal Manoeuvre Gear. Mikasa was shot through the middle and Connie through the right side of his chest during the fight and Eren was drugged and kidnapped, though the others were able to escape.

In an effort to retrieve Eren, Levi led the new Special Operations Squad down into the under cities, following a tie he once had with the leader of their attackers. He tracked him and the enemy to safe house and staked it out, waiting for an opportune moment to attack. His efforts are anticipated however and they are all taken captive. Ymir is forced by their kidnapper Bruce Yeager to reveal her true identity as Forrae Juvel, a century old titan shifter from post fall times. She was planted amongst the 104th in order to monitor Historia and act as her body guard, since she works for the Riess family who are in fact the true Kings and Queen of Althand.

An attack is then launched by the rebel underground known as the El-Ekar, a small army of expert warriors from the old families attempting to resist Rod Riess's rule. Forrae however transforms into the Thorned Titan and kidnaps Matthias and Historia. They are taken to Rod Riess who reveals that Matthias is actually Edmund Riess, the Prince of Althand who is responsible in some way for the Titans' creation. Eren's titan powers are revealed to come from his father Grisha Yeager who stole them from the Riess family in order to upset the balance and stop the will of the mythical 'First King' from forcing the rulers to keep mankind from fighting back against the Titans.

Rod Riess wishes Historia to transform using a special titan form inducing drug so that she can devour Eren and return the Coordinate power to the Riess family and thus restore mankind to Wall Maria. However, knowing she will lose her own will should she do so Historia refuses. When the Scouts and El-Ekar attack the secret cave they are in, Riess manages to inject Historia by force. Matthias is able to transform and use his psychic powers as the Sentinel Titan to destroy Historia's titan form, rescuing her. Eren uses a special dose of the titan drug in order to give himself the ability to armour his body. This allows him to protect everyone when the roof begins to collapse after Rod Riess transforms himself into the 120m tall King Titan.

The King Titan is lured to the City of Orvud where he is killed using an explosive device and numerous coordinated attacks with ODM Gear. Matthias is attacked by the now insane Bruce Yeager who transforms into the Feral Titan and tries to kill him. Matthias is able to kill Bruce, and afterwards the last phial of the titan drug is secured for Military purposes. During the battle Historia is recognised by the citizens as the true Queen of the kingdom of Althand and numerous soldiers swear her fealty.

Using a coerced press group Captain Hange is able to spread the news that Historia is in fact the rightful ruler of the nation, forcing the current king and government to collapse. Historia is crowned Queen and the Scout Regiment which was declared disbanded after their supposed treachery was reformed. With the new Queen in place and a vast amount of new information available to them, Mankind began preparations for an assault to recapture Wall Maria from the Titans. The excitement generated by this has prompted over a thousand transfers from other Regiments into the Scouts, swelling their numbers to previously untold sizes.

Characters

Eren Yeager

Age: 16

Appearance: male of average height with dark hair and green eyes.

Personality: Tends to be stubborn and hot headed when the mood takes him. Is also extremely loyal and courageous to a fault.

Position: One of Humanity's two loyal titan shifters. Is currently ranked as a private in the Scout Regiment's 2nd Company.

Mikasa Ackerman

Age: 15

Appearance: stunningly beautiful oriental female of average height with dark hair and eyes.

Personality: Tends to be reserved around most people but often expresses large amounts of emotion towards her friends, especially to Eren who she is helplessly in love with.

Position: Currently ranked as a private in the Scout Regiment's 2nd Company.

Armin Arlert

Age: 15

Appearance: skinny male of below average height with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Personality: Can be shy and nervous at times. Possesses an extremely keen intellect and can develop a 'take charge' attitude during a combat situation. Has shown great personal courage on more than one occasion.

Position: Currently ranked as a Lieutenant in the Scout Regiment's 3rd Company.

Matthias Quinn

Age: 16

Appearance: slim male of average height with light brown hair and green eyes.

Personality: a rather dry individual when calm, but exudes high levels of emotion when under stress. Has showed the ability to become calm and logical during a combat situation.

Position: One of Humanity's two loyal titan shifters. Currently ranked as a private in the Scout Regiment's 3rd Company.

Jean Kirstein

Age: 16

Appearance: male of average height, with light brown hair and brown eyes.

Personality: has a short and often exposed temper. Can also be highly sarcastic and grading. Is also determined and brave when the situation requires.

Position: Currently ranked as a Corporal in the Scout Regiment's 3rd Company.

Levi Ackerman

Age: mid 30s

Appearance: very short male with dark hair and grey eyes.

Personality: holds all of his emotions-except occasionally for frustration-very thoroughly in check. Is more than somewhat autistic in aspects of his behaviour such as exhibiting symptoms of OCD and a distinct lack of social skills.

Position: Currently ranked as Captain of the 1st Company in the Scout Regiment.

Erwin Smith

Age: late 30s

Appearance: tall male with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Personality: a fairly balanced individual who maintains a calm level of composure in front of his subordinates. Has great drive and courage.

Position: Major-General in the Royal Army, Commander-in-chief of the Scout Regiment.

Hange Zoe

Age: early 30s

Appearance: female of average height with deep brown hair, brown eyes and glasses.

Personality: exhibits extreme mood swings switching between a highly serious individual and an excitable, highly enthusiastic person. Her more excitable personality shows very distinct signs of ADHD and probably ASD.

Position: Major of the 1st Battalion of the Scout Regiment and second in command to Major-General Erwin. Also plays the role of science officer and titan specialist in the Regiment.

Annie Leonhart

Age: 16

Appearance: female of average height with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Personality: highly antisocial and expresses only limited levels of emotion at any time.

Position: Traitor to Humanity, currently incarcerated in a holding cell deep underground.

Connie Springer

Age: 15

Appearance: short male with buzz cut brown hair and brown eyes.

Personality: excitable individual of below average intelligence. Enjoys making fun, but tends to function less effectively under dangerous circumstances. Has still proven loyal to his teammates.

Position: A private in the Scout Regiment's 3rd Company.

Sasha Blouse

Age: 15

Appearance: female of average height with dark brown hair and eyes.

Personality: usually cheerful and at times childlike. Has an obsession with food and often acts via her instincts which are honed to abnormally high levels.

Position: A private in the Scout Regiment's 3rd Company.

Reiner Braun

Age: 17

Appearance: large muscular male with short blonde hair and blue eyes.

Personality: somewhat 'rough and ready' in nature. Is a somewhat cynical individual at times but will show a great amount of courage when dealing with his comrades.

Position: Traitor to Humanity, current whereabouts unknown.

Bertolt Hoover

Age: 17

Appearance: very tall male with brown hair and eyes.

Personality: quiet spoken and conservative. Has limited loyalty to others besides Reiner and Annie as all three of them are fellow traitors to Mankind.

Position: Traitor to Humanity, current whereabouts unknown.

Historia Riess

Age: 15

Appearance: very beautiful female with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Personality: a caring individual who can at times becomes somewhat self centred, prioritising her friends over others. She does however make the best effort she can to overcome these tendencies in the line of duty.

Position: Queen of Althand.

Forrae Juvel

Age: 136

Appearance: Beautiful woman with pale skin, long blonde hair and blue eyes. Has shown some ability to appear in a different shape.

Position: Traitor to Humanity, current whereabouts unknown.

Amanda Quinn

Age: 17

Appearance: a young woman with long nut brown hair and green eyes.

Personality: firm on a point once she decides on it, but is also often somewhat sceptical. Passive and somewhat intellectual at most times but she can summon a very formidable temper when provoked.

Position: currently ranked as a Lieutenant in the Scout Regiment's 5th Company.

The Colossal Titan

Appearance: 60m tall with no skin. Has a limited amount of his face constructed of a bright pink flesh like substance. No other features visible on body.

Pilot: Bertolt Hoover

The Armoured Titan

Appearance: 16m tall with no skin. Covered in a series of bone like armoured plates that protect nearly his entire body. Small amount of short grey hair.

Pilot: Unknown

The Female Titan

Appearance: 14m tall with limited amounts of skin and short blonde hair. Arms and legs are exposed and skinless while the rest of her body is covered in bright pink skin. Appears to be female unlike most titans.

Pilot: Annie Leonhart

The Berserker Titan

Appearance: 15m tall with total skin coverage and dark hair. Has glowing green eyes and a form of double sized jaw. The skin around the jaw appears to be layered directly over the gums leaving the teeth exposed on the outside of the head.

Pilot: Eren Yeager

The Sentinel Titan

Appearance: 15m tall with total skin coverage and long light brown hair. Has a black disk mark in the centre of his forehead. Mouth appears to be normal dimensions, but cheeks split back to reveal a double length jaw.

Pilot: Matthias Quinn

The Beast Titan

Appearance: 17m tall and covered in brown fur all over except on his front and face. Has perfectly black eyes due to sensitive vision and also has abnormally long arms and shorter legs. Also has an unusual pair of pointed ears.

Pilot: Unknown

The Thorned Titan

Appearance: 16m tall and covered in a layer of fluid like scales which are impenetrable to physical attacks. Has long blonde hair and her face is covered in a solid titan stone shell that can hinge open and closed in order to move her mouth. Has a pair of long blade like spines extending from her forearms as well as several shorter ones on her back. Has a build reminiscent of a woman but has a flat chest.

Pilot: Forrae Juvel


	2. Prologue

Prolouge: Meeting by moonlight

The air was still and lifeless, not even a breeze shaking the leaves of the ring of trees that surrounded the circle of massive stones. These needle shaped rocks stood at regular intervals around a space about five hundred meters across in a perfect circle. The ground within the circle was bare dirt without a hint of plant growth. The insects that moved silently through the grasses and shrubs turned back when they neared the edge of the circle. This was not a place for the living to be. Or at least, not a place for most of them.

The two young men strode into the clearing and onwards into the circle. One of them was thickly set with short blonde hair, while the other was tall, lanky and a raven. They were dressed in faded brown jackets, white shirts and pants and leather boots that came up to their knees. They also wore a system of black leather straps around their legs and chests. "I hate this place," muttered Bertolt to his companion.

"So do I," agreed Reiner with a wary glance around, "But don't say that in front of him, he likes it."

"That's because he's one of them," replied Bertolt with a disgusted look. "I can't believe we're actually working with a titan."

"We've already gone a long way to betray our own kind," said Reiner bitterly, "what's one step more?"

"We had to do that!" protested Bertolt, "We needed to restore the balance; there was no other way."

"Wasn't there? I wish I felt so sure of myself."

Bertolt bit his lip. "Reiner, don't talk like that. Especially don't talk like that now, not here; it isn't safe."

"I couldn't agree more," said a voice that was silky like honey but also deep and somewhat dramatic. Forrae leant against one of the stones, arms folded. Her long blonde hair fell down to her waist and her eyes were staring coldly at the two youngsters. For compared to the hundred and thirty six year old woman, that's exactly what they were. In fact, infants might have been closer to the mark.

Reiner scowled at her. "Oh, it's you," he said through gritted teeth.

"Try not to sound so delighted," replied Forrae with a sarcastic roll of her eyes. "I know you're all broken up about me not telling you who I was and serving with you in that tin pot army for three years but do try to act like an adult."

"That's rich coming from you," snipped Bertolt.

Forrae scowled back at him. "At least I didn't blow my cover and then lose my captives all in the one day," she replied coolly.

"No. You did it all within three days," replied Reiner.

"That was not my fault! That idiot Riess actually believed that his stupid bastard would go through with it willingly. He should have restrained her and then stuck her with the needle right when we first got her. My part of the job was already done."

"Unless I'm mistaken, your job also included protecting the Riess Family didn't it?" asked Bertolt, "You've done a bang up job of that one haven't you? Only two of them left alive and one is a bastard whilst the other is the Unmade Sacrifice. Nicely Forrae, we should all be in awe of your achievements."

"Shut up before I rip out your skull, plug up the eye sockets and use it as a glass!"

"I'd like to see you try it!"

"SILENCE!" boomed a deep, rich, echoy voice from seventeen metres above them. The Beast Titan loomed over the titan shifters, glowering irritably. "You humans are giving me the most dreadful headache," he complained, putting a massive hand to his temple. Bertolt and Reiner still stared at Forrae with fiery hatred, but knew better than to try anything with the Beast Titan only a few metres away. "Now then, we're all here I believe," said the Beast Titan turning to look towards the centre of the circle. "My lord? We are ready for you now."

There was a kind of crackling noise a slight flicker of yellow lightning arching up from the middle of the circle into the night sky. Then there was a booming Gong! as if someone had struck a great bell with a hammer somewhere up in the heavens. There was another flicker of lightning and everything was still. At last, the voice spoke. "All the faithful ones have been gathered," it said, in such a huge deep boom that it seemed to be the very earth that spoke. "All that is bar the one who is in chains. Fear not, she shall be retrieved and granted true freedom like all the others when the time appointed arrives."

"Sire, what is it you wish us to do now?" asked the Beast Titan, his voice carrying an uncharacteristic humility to it.

"The humans will be coming soon to reclaim the outer walls. It has already been almost two months since they crowned the shame Queen, so it will not be long now. There is no longer a chance to restore the balance by the means I had hoped. New means shall be employed."

"What new means?" asked Reiner cautiously. "The Coordinate power is the only way to keep the royals in line, and that is compatible only with the Riess bloodline."

"Indeed that is so. However, I shall create a new power that will be passed through a new bloodline. Thus shall the crown be returned to one with the right to it."

"How shall we accomplish this my lord?" asked the Beast Titan in surprise.

"All in good time. For now, I have a task that I require all of you bar the one of pure heart to complete. I have other pressing work that they must do at this time in case you should fail your task. You are to prepare yourselves for the coming of the humans to the city they call Shiganshina. When they arrive you are to kill or capture the Coordinate and capture the Sacrifice if possible. I value his good heart and would not see him die needlessly, even though he is misguided in his fight. If you must though, you may destroy him. Also, I wish for you to eliminate as many of their leaders as can be achieved, particularly the ones from the old families such as the one called Levi Ackerman. He has a touch about him that is far too dangerous to be permitted."

"You are afraid he may become one of the blessed?" asked Forrae incredulously. "That shorty?"

"He has a strong arm and a far stronger will. Should he be given the right tools then he would become a truly formidable adversary. It is much to my regret that these tools are in the hands of the humans right now. However, we are blessed in the fact that it is unlikely that they will risk using them. I wish for you to be swift in your efforts and to dispatch both of the Ackermans when the attack occurs."

"You want us to kill Mikasa as well?" asked Reiner. "Can that really be necessary?"

"I fear that it will soon be necessary to remove all of those from the old families who do not recognise the importance of our goals. They are a threat we cannot allow when the time of the new order arrives. And arrive it shall, for I am almost prepared for it now. The aligning will occur in six months time and when it does, the New Order shall arise. Take heart my loyal children, for the time of our victory is close at hand."


	3. Flashbacks

Chapter 1: Flashbacks

"Soldiers, attention!" cries the drill sergeant. Three hundred pairs of boots all clack together in almost perfect synchronisation.

"Men and women of the newly formed 3rd Battalion of the Scout Regiment," begins Major-General Erwin in his usual loud confident tone, "You have chosen to serve Mankind in possibly the most dangerous capacity possible. I think it unnecessary to tell you of the risks involved in the line of work pursued by the Survey Corps so I'll cut right to the chase. In one week's time the Regiment along with supporting forces from the Garrison and Military Police will be deployed in force beyond Wall Rose. Unlike all of the Regiment's previous official actions, this will not be a scouting mission. This will be a full scale offensive to retake Wall Maria."

The faces of the many soldiers display subtle looks of apprehension and in some cases excitement. "Our efforts will be concentrated on sealing the breach in the Gate of the outlier district of Shiganshina. Should we prove successful we will begin the process of purging the Titans from within Wall Maria. This expected to take months to complete, and even then it is assumed that titan sightings will still occur on occasion. That operation will cost many lives to complete, but it will save more than ten times the number of lives from starvation due to the immense over population within Walls Rose and Sina. The mission will be conducted at night in order to minimise contact with titans, as they are far less active during the night hours.

"There are several unknown factors of course, not least being the means by which we seal the gate itself. Eren Yeager has already proven himself capable of controlling his new ability to create what we have named Titan Stone, however the titan power itself is still largely unknown to us so it isn't impossible that some unforseen event may lead to complications in that area. The primary threat is not ordinary titans. Numerous traitors to Mankind have allied themselves alongside the Titans and posses the ability to summon titan forms of their own. You most likely know these titan forms as the Armoured, Colossal, Thorned and Beast Titans.

"They are all formidable adversaries, and each would be nigh on impossible for an ordinary soldier to fight against. They posses defences our attacks are unable to penetrate as well as strength and speed that we cannot hope to match. Thankfully we are not limited only to ordinary soldiers. We do have two titan shifters of our own: the aforementioned Eren Yeager and Matthias Quinn. These two have proven themselves resourceful and loyal warriors on multiple occasions and they were able to defeat both the Armoured and Female Titans in combat. That does not mean we can rely on them to defeat these opponents alone.

"Should we face these enemies in battle our highest priority will be containment and aiding our two titan shifters in any way possible. The obstacles we face in reclaiming Wall Maria are extensive, but should we succeed will have undoubtedly saved Mankind from extinction, as well as secured a valuable source of information held within the city of Shiganshina, that will help us to defeat the Titans permanently. That's all; dismissed."

I watch from a window up on the second floor of the Scout Regiment's new and far larger Head Quarters. Since the old one was unable to support the now far larger regiment we've been transferred to a new one. I sigh as the battalion breaks up into groups, wandering away towards the large number of barracks in the distance. "The Commander has a way of making things seem hopeless and yet hopeful at the same time doesn't he?" I ask my companion.

"Got that right," replies Eren, blowing a stray lock of raven hair out of his green eyes. "We only managed to beat Reiner by working as a team, and even then Bertolt got us in the end. I know we're not likely to fall for that trick twice but still. Fighting them alone would be a pretty major challenge..."

"And we're not likely to be fighting them alone," I finish. "If the Beast Titan is there as well we don't really stand much of a chance. Not to mention Forrae's titan. That thing was terrifying. She was so fast that after the initial opening I would have been hard pressed to even touch her, never mind injure her."

Eren nods grimly. "If all four of them are there we don't have any chance open to us. We have to try I suppose, but I still feel like we're walking straight to our doom."

"I know what you mean. Oh well, it's not the first time we've had to face insurmountable odds is it? Let's look on the positive side; the Scout Regiment has never had this many soldiers in it before. Three entire battalions? Up until now the Survey Corps was never even half that size."

Eren shrugs and walks over to the window. Outside groups of new recruits into the Regiment stand around talking excitedly. "I worry about them though," he says, his brow furrowing, "Many of them have never even seen a titan in their whole lives. Those that have all signed up in the 2nd Battalion. These guys are all overly optimistic rookies who for the first time are finally seeing the Scout Regiment for what it is: a symbol of hope." He laughs quietly and shakes his head, "it seems wrong talking about some of these guys rookies; some of them are over thirty years old. But compared to every last Scout who's ever been on a recon mission that's exactly what they are."

"How many do you think will survive?" I ask.

Eren looks at me with a raised eyebrow. "What happened to looking on bright side?" he asks.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. It's best not to think about that."

There's a knock on the door to the room. "Come in!" calls out Eren.

The door swings open to show Mikasa. She looks a lot better now than she did a month ago. After being shot through the middle and almost bleeding to death, then nearly dying from an infection despite Hange's best efforts in the field, she was a physical wreak. The doctors predicted she wouldn't up and about in time for the operation, but she proved them wrong. After a month of being confined to her bed she pushed herself to start moving around again. Over the course of the last month she's been working harder to rehabilitate herself than I've ever seen her work at anything. Some people worried she'd push herself too hard and end up right back on a sick bed again, but Mikasa seems to know her limits perfectly.

Now, she looks almost like her old self again. Granted her eyes look a little tired and her figure isn't quite as firmly set as it was before, but she's able to fight as well as anyone else in the Regiment. I get a rush of emotions from Eren as she enters the room, and it takes all my concentration to avoid prying his thoughts. These days he feels all nervous and flustered around her, but excited and happy at the same time. It reminds me a lot of how I felt around Historia during the less certain part of our relationship. I can feel Mikasa's slight increase in happiness when she looks at Eren, but as usual her emotions are kept very well in check. I like that; it makes it easier to concentrate on what's going on around me when people aren't a whirling cauldron of feelings.

"Major Hange wants Matthias to report to her in the briefing room," explains Mikasa.

"Oh not again!" I sigh. "It's what, the sixth time in the past week? She doesn't really have more experiments she wants to run only a week before we deploy does she?"

Mikasa shrugs, "I don't know, she just asked me to run the errand for her."

"All right then, I'd better go see what she wants then." I trudge out the door and begin to work my way through the winding mass of hallways and rooms that make up head quarters. To be fair I wasn't exactly making good use of my time anyway; just standing around talking. At the moment though there doesn't seem to be all that much for me to do. Preparations for Operation Underdog don't really require my involvement all that much so whenever I'm not doing daily training I find myself sitting around doing nothing or running errands and helping out with basic tasks. I don't really have a problem with that as such; I just don't like feeling unproductive.

"Ah Matthias there you are!" cries the excited voice of Hange as I push open the door to the briefing room.

"Good afternoon Major," I reply, trying not to let the apprehension seep into my voice.

"Ah yes, I just love that new rank! It sounds so much better than Captain doesn't it? Major Hange just rolls off the tongue so much more smoothly!" She grins deviously, "Besides, it means Levi has to keep calling me sir."

"If you say so sir," I say with a slight shake of the head. "Can I ask what you want me for exactly?"

"Ah, yes," Hange's face becomes a little more serious. "You Matthias are probably out biggest source of information in regards to the appearance of the Titans a hundred years ago. I know this might be a little tricky, but I want you to give a full chronological account of what you can remember. I'm going to write it down so that we can study it more easily."

I frown, "well, getting things in the right order might be a bit difficult. I don't know what the order is half of the time."'

"Well just get it as close as you can. The order can be worked out later if need be, for now I just want as much raw information as you can give me."

"I, I'm not sure where to begin," I say.

"How about with Edmund Riess and his family? What do you remember about them?"

I close my eyes and try to recall the handful of images that I can access. "My father's name was Edward, Edward the Second. I can't remember my mother's name. I had a twin sister named Angela. She had, something wrong with her. I don't know what it was but there was something that meant I had to look after her. I can remember my parents always being nervous when she was outside. I think I had a few friends; some of the nobles' sons in the court. I can very clearly remember an advisor named Elwin Shultz. I'm not sure what it was that he did but I remember never liking him. That's probably not very important though is it?"

Hange shrugs, "it might be. We have very little idea what happened a hundred years ago so who knows what's connected to what? Anyway, go on."

"Eren's father was our tutor. I remember I used to complain rather a lot during lessons; I was a brat. He always very patient though, and usually managed to get me interested in whatever it was that we were doing. Besides that I don't remember anything about him. Everything else is rather hazy. Some shouting, people running and screaming, fire, blood, roofs being smashed in, titans silhouetted against flames rising up to the night sky."

"I can see it!" exclaims Hange. I open my eyes and look at her irritably for making fun of me. "No really!" she gasps excitedly, "I could actually see it for a moment. I think you might be transferring things to me via your titan powers. Keep going, keep going!"

A little stunned I pause for a moment then shut my eyes again and continue. "There's a lot of those sorts of images, eventually they just stretch on and on, as if they don't have any end to them. Running over hills and smashing through trees in pursuit of, of prey." I finish with a great effort as a rush of disgusting primal urges sweep over me, accompanied by numerous sights, smells and worst of all tastes.

"But that isn't all. There's a woman fighting with a group of men in red robes. I'm looking at it from inside of what looks a bit like a wardrobe. She gets stabbed several times and then, has her throat cut." My voice breaks off and I put a hand over my face. "I'm fine, I'm fine," I say hurriedly, swallowing hard to push back a sob. "It's just, I only just realised who that woman was; she was my mother."

"I'm sorry," says Hange. "If this is too difficult for you we can take a break."

"No, no I'm all right. I already knew she'd be dead so, so I suppose in a way, this is kind of an act of closure." I breathe in slowly, trying to get the air to cool the rush of heat that always accompanies a fit of sorrow. "There's a lot of other things," I continue, "mostly snatches of words, blurry pictures fragments really."

"Try focusing on some of them," says Hange, her voice a little gentler now. "See if you can send some of them directly to me."

"I'll try." I reach down into my mind and feel around for the scattered pieces of my past. At first I can't find anything, but then they come on in a rush like moths drawn to a candle flame.

 _"Who, are you, child?"_ asks a sonorous voice.

 _"M-my name is, Edmund,"_ replies a small voice filled with terror. I can almost hear my old self shaking as he speaks.

 _"Why are you here?"_

 _"I don't know."_

 _"Tell me child, what is the world like? Does mankind still live in unity?"_

 _"I, I don't understand."_

 _"Are you at peace?"_

 _"Please, I don't want to die."_

 _"Why are you afraid?"_

 _"Because they said they'd kill her!"_

The fragment ends suddenly, even though I try desperately to pick up more. I know I've heard some of that conversation before, but never with it all lined up and connected. Something about that voice makes me shiver deep inside. It isn't just the absolute terror that my younger self had, there's something more here, something I don't understand. Before I can really think about it though, the next memory comes rushing on me like a storm.

My vision is filled with the face of a woman in her late thirties. Dark hair surrounds it and she has a line to her features that seems oddly familiar. A green hood is pulled up over her head and around her shoulders. _"Your name is Edmund isn't it?"_ she asks hastily, _"Edmund Riess?"_ I can feel myself nodding. _"Edmund, I know you're scared, but I need you to come with me right now okay?"_ I feel her slip her hand into mine and pull my up to my feet. Not that that seems to make much difference, everything still seems much higher up than it should.

The cloaked woman begins to lead me hurriedly down a hallway in a dark wooden building. The light is limited only to a faint streak of moonlight which slips in through an open door. Suddenly one of numerous doors in the corridor bursts open and a man dressed in black comes out. He holding a single-handed sword which has dark red blood spattered along the blade. _"Give me the sacrifice!"_ he howls, charging forwards. The woman pushes me back behind her and draws a long thin bladed sword from her waist. Just briefly I realise that it looks just like Amanda's sword before that memory fades as well.

Then I'm cold, freezing cold as if I've been buried in ice. No images come this time only sensations. I can feel what I think is snow. The snow is so deep that it comes up to my hips. I'm trying to wade through it but the cold is biting into me so much that I can only just feel my legs. I'm so cold I don't even shiver. Then there's a sudden rush of heat and I feel disoriented. Then the cold is back, but the snow is now very shallow, less than a centimetre deep I'd say.

At last an image comes. It looks like a mountain side; covered in snow with a few scraggly trees clinging to its surface. The wind is whipping massive clouds of snow through the air so that I'm being forced to squint. There's a massive cracking noise that prompts me to look up. I don't even have time to properly register what it is I'm looking at before a huge mass of white and cold smashes into me. I can feel myself being bundled over and over backwards, slower each time until I come to a sliding halt. Then I can't see, I can't move and I can't feel anything except cold. Cold, freezing biting cold.

I open my eyes with a gasp. Hange is looking at me with wide eyes. "H, how did I do?" I ask. Even though the cold is gone I'm having a hard time not shivering at the memory.

"That was spectacular!" splutters the Major. "Tell me, was any of that new or had you seen it before?"

"Uh, I'm pretty sure I'd seen it all before in broken up bits and pieces," I stutter. "That was the first time a lot of that was put into the right order though."

"Hmm, I have to admit I don't have a clue where all of the pieces fit together. You seem to be very young in each case but that doesn't change very much. We know all of these things happened when you were about five." Hange sighs and runs her fingers through her hair. "I'm most interested in that first bit. That voice unnerves me."

"You as well?" I ask.

Hange nods gravely. "I have a very bad feeling about it. Whoever it belongs to it doesn't sound like they're human. They talked about us in the third person. If that's the case then what are they?"

"You don't think, it was a titan or something?"

"I think I'd be happy with a titan. It's the or something part that worries me." An inexplicable feeling of dread begins to creep over me. For the first time I feel as if I've just looked past the many threads of the web, towards the spider at the centre. Right now I feel all too much like a trapped fly.

"Anyway!" says Hange, brushing her concerns off in a split second. "You look a little bit shaken after all of that. I think it might be best if we leave it for today. You've given me plenty to think about for now." I have to admit she's right. I feel like my legs are going to buckle under me. It was only a short relapse as far as I can tell, but I feel utterly drained by it.

"But, I don't really have anything to do really," I say, trying to keep my voice from sounding whiny. "Is there anything productive I could be doing right now?"

Hange shrugs. "Sorry, you're scheduled to have any duties for the next few days. The Commander wants you and Eren as fresh as possible for when we start Operation Underdog. I like that name, it's rather poetic isn't it?"

"Yes, I suppose so."

"There is something that might cheer you up a bit. A certain royal majesty is coming down here so that she can observe the final preparations for the attack. She's meant to arrive in a few hours."

"Historia's coming here? Why didn't anyone tell me before now?!"

"Because it's meant to be a secret. We are technically at war you know; people could try to bump her off or something."

"I don't think that's very funny."

"Sorry. Anyway, most of us think the real reason she's coming is because she wants to see all of her old friends before they go out on an operation that may mean they never come back again. I think I can understand that. By the way, when's the big day set for?"

I turn slightly red at that and put a hand behind my head. "We thought it would be appropriate to have it after the Operation is over. It's more of a political decision than anything else; it's likely to cap off the people's excitement rather well."

"Oh yes. Well, give the beautiful thing a kiss for me." I give Hange a disapproving look. "I'm kidding. Or am I?" she adds with a sinister laugh.

"Permission to speak frankly sir?" I ask.

"Denied!" she cries cheerfully, "Now go and sit down for a little while. I do still expect an invitation though."

"We'll see," I reply cheekily before slipping out the door.


	4. This may be our last day

Chapter 2: This may be our last day

The early morning light is filtering in through one of the long windows that line the right side of the hallway. The sun blasts a brilliant yellow light through the entire room as it sits perfectly horizontal to the corridor for a few moments. I close my eyes and lean against the wall behind me. The warmth of the sunlight is in stark contrast to what I felt during the night. Cold, ice cold just like during the flashback with Hange. Snow, wind, cold and at the end falling. That feeling stuck with me particularly because I remember falling from something just before I came out of my titan body and met my parents. Mom said that my titan body fell down from the mountain so I suppose that explains it. 'But what on earth was I doing on a mountain? How did I end up inside the Walls after spending years roaming outside as an ordinary titan?' I sigh and run my hand through my mop of hair, opening my eyes to stare at the ceiling.

The sound of a door opening brings my attention out of the past. I've been waiting here for the last few minutes for Historia to get changed into proper clothes after I called on her. Apparently she's gotten out of the habit of rising with the dawn like we always had to in the Military. Her hair was all a mess and she looked annoyed at being woken up. Now she's put everything back in its proper place and while she still looks tired, she has the usual sparkle in her eyes. There were times when I thought I'd never get to see that again.

Historia yaws and puts a hand over her mouth. "Morning," she says.

"Yes it is," I reply. "But only just."

She sticks her tongue out at me and finishes fiddling with hair. "Well in a week's time you can start making sure I always get up in the middle of the night. Not that I can promise I won't make you sleep on the sofa for it."

I laugh, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. I'm not sure I'm ready to start thinking about that sort of thing just yet."

Historia grins a little mischievously, "One week isn't that far. And besides, some people don't wait until the actual ceremony you know."

"Uh, I think I'd rather wait and do things the traditional way."

She laughs, "You sound scared! What, taking on titans is perfectly acceptable but sleeping in the same bed as your wife is just crossing the line is it?"

"No, I," I break off and sigh in exasperation. "I'm just a little bit, you know, nervous. I don't have any previous experience in that area."

"I should certainly hope not!"

"Agh! No that isn't what I meant. I mean I don't really know what to do, or whatever. Look I'm just not in a hurry to get to that point all right?"

"Don't worry," says Historia looking into my eyes with a smile, "when the times I think you'll figure it out." She leans up on her toes and kisses me.

"Isn't that sort of talk a little inappropriate for a Queen to be using?" I tease as our lips part.

"Oh you can shut up!" she snaps back, punching me in the arm.

"Ouch! Geez, at this rate it won't be the Titans I'll need to worry about it'll be you!" I duck under the next one and slip around behind her. I slip my arms around her waist and kiss her lightly on her cheek.

"Oh, you're incorrigible, you know that?"

I look at her blankly, "uh, is that a good thing?" I ask a little embarrassed all of a sudden by my more limited vocabulary.

Historia laughs, "I guess that depends what I'm after doesn't it? Anyway," she says, switching to a slightly more 'on topic' tone of voice and slipping out of my arms, "what's the chance of breakfast? I'm starving."

"Right this way," I say, taking her by the hand and leading her down the hallway towards the mess hall.

Historia's reception is decidedly enthusiastic and surprised. Many of the 1st Battalion veterans who knew Historia (even if only for a short time) aren't too surprised by her appearance, but the two hundred other soldiers that fill the room are taken very aback indeed. There's a lot of bowing and "your majesty"s, all of which Historia tries to discourage with limited success. The cooks are no less surprised than the rest and seem terribly flustered that they don't have anything special to give her instead of the ordinary stew and bread that everyone else is being served with. Historia just tells them that's it's fine, and that she'd like them to serve her like they would anybody else.

After we sit down at a table with only a few people at the far end of the room Historia lets out a long sigh. "It never matters how much I ask them to treat me like a normal person," she says with a shake of her head, "I can already feel their eyes on me every second. I'm no different a person than I was to when I became Queen, but the title changes everything somehow. I can remember when the only times people would give me more than a first glance were for the wrong reasons. As annoying as that was I think I'd rather have that over this!"

"After a while," I reply, "you do get used to people looking at you funny whenever you walk into a room. Of course, even me and Eren never had to deal with that on quite the same level as you."

"And that's stupid enough in itself!" sputters Historia. "You two are titan shifters, mankind's greatest weapons and two of if not the two most important people in the Kingdom. There's nothing special about me in comparison; I'm just the illegitimate child of a king's maid."

"Now that is nonsense right there. You are an extremely important person. Without you there'd be no stable government and the last of the Human Race would fall into anarchy. We wouldn't last five minutes against the Titans like that. Besides, you titan shifted yourself you know."

"Ugh! Don't remind me please," she says with a shiver. "That was probably the most unpleasant experience of my life. I still see her in my dreams sometimes you know. When I think about what I did then," she shudders, "I actually ate the lower part of Eren's body. I feel like throwing up just talking about it." She looks at me sympathetically. "It must be pretty difficult when you can remember, well, what you can remember."

"You mean gorging yourself on human blood and flesh? No, it isn't exactly a rose garden. But still, there are some positives that come with having a titan inside of you. I've been talking to mine a lot more often now. I try to do it once every few days if I can. He's like a pet dog that's constantly straining at its leash. If he slips his collar he'll bite, but so long as you can keep him under control he isn't too bad."

"You make it sound like you're best buddies or something," remarks Historia with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't think I could go that far. We have an, understanding I suppose. It might help if you tried working with yours a little bit every now and again. I could help with that if you wanted."

"I'm not even sure if I still actually have one. There aren't exactly many opportunities to chomp on my own hand and see what happens you know. Even if I do still have her though, I don't think I want her."

I nod, "I can understand that." I sit quietly for a while, eating. I can tell from the slightly uncomfortable look on Historia's face that the talk about titans eating people has damaged her appetite. As strange as it seems I'm not all that bothered by it anymore. I mean, the idea is still disgusting and I hate the fact that it happens but it doesn't turn my stomach anymore. I suppose it's the kind of resilience that comes with constant exposure. The number of nightmares I have in which I have to watch people die in that way have begun to make me resistant to Titan Fear, as they like to call it. Most people spend years of their lives in the Scouts before they can adapt to fight calmly, but I've only been here four months. Of course, it doesn't have all that much to do with my experience as a Scout; I was exposed to the horror from a different source.

"So," says Historia after about ten minutes of silence, "how are the others?"

"Why are you asking me? You'll be able to ask them yourself later today."

"Well yes, but I want to hear it from you first. I want to hear what your opinion is as well as what they have to say."

"Oh I see. Physically everyone's fine; Mikasa and Connie have both pretty much fully recovered. Mikasa's still a little off at times but I think she'll be fine. Jean's been stressing a little after his promotion to Corporal. I suppose that's to be expected really; something like that would probably put a lot of pressure on a person. Armin of course knows that better than Jean does."

"What do you mean?"

"You haven't heard? He's been raised to 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Company. He spends most of his time now either bright red or bright white. He worried that the soldiers under his command would resent the fact that they were being led by someone who's yet to receive their legal adult status. Truth is it doesn't seem to bother them much. Armin's developed quite the reputation around here."

"What about Eren, how's he doing?"

"Well enough I think. He sometimes has days where he wakes up screaming now, but then that just makes two of us. He's getting used to it now though."

Historia looks sadly down at the table. "It must be really hard for the two of you. I can't imagine living with what you two have to live with."

I smile and put my hand over hers. "It's nothing we can't handle. Besides, you're the Queen, that's plenty of pressure all on its own I'd say."

"Heh, it isn't my idea of a dream job I'll admit," says Historia with a shake of her head. "It's been a long haul trying to get people I trust into the positions of power, and I'm not even half done yet. You were right when you said they wouldn't give up their power easily. Still, things are harder for you than they are for me; no one's counting on me to defeat Mankind's worst enemy."

She bites her lip nervously. "I've looked at all of the plans for the Operation, and Matthias I'm frightened for you guys. It's a four hour ride to Shiganshina, and it's through Titan Country the whole way. The Regiment's far stronger than it was last time, but even so."

"We'll be travelling at night," I point out, "titans become dormant during the night so we shouldn't have any problems with them."

"They were pretty lively when the Beast Titan showed up," she counters. "And anyway, once you get to Shiganshina you don't know what you'll find. The city is of course going to crawling with titans but, they'll be there as well. Reiner, Bertolt, Forrae and the Beast Titan will most likely be waiting for you."

"I know," I say with a sigh, "I can't say I'm looking forward to it but, well, we have to try. If we can seal the gate up with solid titan stone it should be impregnable though. All we to do is get to the gate and seal it up and then it doesn't matter what happens."

"We don't know that's true. The Beast and Thorned Titans are both far stronger than either you or Eren in titan form; they may be able to breach even that strong a defence."

"It's a good bet they can't though. They haven't tried to break through the Wall itself, which implies that they can't. Still, I understand why you're worried. If it comes to a fight I personally don't have much hope for our success. Eren can armour himself now so the two of us might be able to beat Reiner and Bertolt, but if either Forrae or the Beast Titan are there-never mind both of them-I can't imagine us winning."

"What about the serum?" asks Historia suddenly.

"What serum?" I ask confused.

"You remember: the drug that turns people into wild titans. I know I certainly remember it," she adds with a shiver.

"Oh, that," I say glumly. "Hange's been running experiments with a small amount we extracted from the last cylinder, but it's totally beyond her. She says that it defies all of her current knowledge about titan and human anatomy. She can't even tell what it's composed of besides the fact that it contains water in small quantities along with a few traces of iron and sulphur. Apart from that she can't identify any of it. And of course we can't use it; whoever injected themselves would just lose all control and go berserk unless they ate a titan shifter. I can't speak for anyone else but I'm volunteering to get eaten."

"I don't think that's very funny," says Historia very seriously.

"Sorry. My point is it's pretty much useless except as a kind of last resort weapon. We think I might be able to extract whoever ends up using it in the same I was able to get you out. Of course we don't know that circumstances would be the same. As far as I know we're treating it as a weapon of last resort. Hold on," I add looking at Historia in surprise, "shouldn't you know all of this already?"

"Of course I do," she says with a smile, "but it's like I said; I want to hear your take on things."

She pauses for a few moments, thinking. "Oh yes!" she exclaims suddenly, "There was something I wanted to ask you about from yesterday evening. Eren turned red several times while we were talking, what was that all about?"

"Ah," I say knowingly. "I forgot you've been out of the know for a few months now. Eren and Mikasa are a couple now. Well, sort of a couple. It's kind of an unspoken thing between them. Eren gets all funny around her sometimes and he doesn't mind her standing close to him now. In fact he seems to be quite fond of it. It's rather funny to be honest; it's like the two of them have no idea how they're supposed to do anything together. Just the two of them being the same room tends to make Eren a little bit awkward. Really, I think couple's probably the wrong word. But there is something there at any rate."

"There's quite the romantic air about then?"

"I'm not sure I'd go that far. I can't think of any other developments on that front really. Well, apart from one, but not only does that one not count, I'm not supposed to talk about it."

"Oh come on!" says Historia excitedly, leaning over the table. "Can't you at least tell me who it is? Please?"

"It's not my secret you know. Besides, there's a bit of an age gap issue and the one I know doesn't feel very comfortable with it. Thinks it's just a passing fancy."

"Ha! I doubt their age gap is anywhere near as bad as ours; you're a hundred and twenty three years old and I'm just sixteen!"

"That doesn't count!" I protest, "I might as well be sixteen for all intents and purposes."

"Anyway, is this fancy one sided?" asks Historia, setting her jibe aside for the time being.

"So far as I know. It's possible it isn't but I doubt it."

"Why? Plenty of younger girls admire older men."

"Maybe so, but you don't find many women fancying men who are younger than them."

"Wait, the younger one here is the boy?!"

"Yes."

"Oh wow! That's something you don't come across regularly."

"I'll say," I agree with a nod. I run my fingers over the table's surface, feeling the slight grooves in the smooth wood. "It makes things rather embarrassing for him since he can't think of any sort of method of approach. He thinks he should just let it blow over and I'm inclined to agree with him."

"Why? How many years apart are they?"

"Technically three, though it is closer to two."

"That isn't so bad. Of course, it does depend what the actual ages of the two people in question are. It sounds like the girl is likely to be a proper adult, so I doubt she'd be showing any interest in an immature person."

"I wouldn't call the guy in question immature," I say quickly. "In fact he's probably the most mature person I know." I sigh, "I just gave it away didn't I?"

"Oh yeah. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about it."

"It isn't that, it's the principle of the thing. If this gets out he'll be terribly embarrassed."

Historia stands up and takes her empty tray. "Don't worry about. You can tell Armin his secret's safe with me."

"Actually, I think it might be better if I didn't," I reply, standing up as well.

Fifteen hours later I'm back in the same corridor I was this morning. Now, instead of the yellow beams of the sun falling over the floor, the bright white light of the moon illuminates the space. The white light turns everything pale and causes it to take on silvery sheen. Historia looks out the window at the moon which sits crisply in the sky. "I'm glad it's the moon and stars that we get at night and not the sun," she says suddenly. "Moon light always makes me feel peaceful, but the sun leaves me feeling excited. I don't think it'd be practical to try and sleep under the light of the sun."

"Isn't that more because your instincts work with the sun and the moon to tell you that it's time to act and time to sleep?" I ask sceptically.

"I suppose so. Really, we need the sun for there to even be a day time since the moon casts far too little light for us to spend our days by. Still, you can't put everything down to instincts can you?"

"No, I guess not."

Historia bites her lip nervously. "Do you think you'll die?" she asks suddenly.

"What? No, I don't intend to die," I reply.

"I didn't ask you whether or not you wanted to die, I asked if you thought you would anyway."

"I, I don't know really. The odds aren't exactly in favour of my survival I'll admit. But hey, we've all survived up until this point haven't we? Besides it's just like back in Trost; we're choosing between possible death and possible victory, or certain death and little more time alive. I don't know about you but I'm running the risk of the first option."

"Yes, yes I suppose so," says Historia looking gloomily down at the floor. "I just, I just wish we didn't have to run these kinds of risks. I wish I could come with you!"

"You know why you can't," I say, taking her by the hand. "They need you here more than anywhere else. Even if this goes wrong things aren't necessarily over so long as we've still got you on the throne. If you die then everything is over."

"I know that," says Historia looking up at me miserably. "It doesn't mean I have to like it though. If you die, what do I do with myself?"

"You keep living," I say firmly, putting my hands on her shoulders. "You keep living and you keep fighting. No matter what happens in a week's time you need to keep fighting them. You fight them, you win and you live, got that?"

Historia smiles, her eyes glistening slightly from tears. She wraps her arms around me and hugs me tightly. "I've got it. But I can say the same to you you know. I don't expect to hear that you're dead after the Operation is over. You're going to come back, and we're going to get married. Even if you can't promise me that, remember I'm still expecting it."

"If that's a promise, then I can't think of what could stop me from coming back."


	5. Wall Maria Part 1

Chapter 3: Wall Maria Part 1: A Long Ride

The sound of nearly a thousand hooves thundering over the ground as the Regiment pours out of Karanese is deafening. As the first battalion comes clear of the few scattered houses around the gate I begin to look eagerly to my left and right. Last time there were only about a hundred soldiers on either side of me, now there's close to four hundred. If last time it was a sea of green, this time it's an ocean. A very dark ocean.

Hundreds of individual beacons shed their blue-silver light across skin, hair, metal and green cloth as the Scouts pour out onto the flats. The full moon high up in the sky is shedding enough light to dimly make out the landscape around us. The wide green fields are now shrouded in darkness, with faint rays from the soldiers' lamps forming small patches of light. The formation begins to spread out somewhat as we pour out further and further into Titan Country. Unlike the 57th Recon Mission we're holding much closer together, due partially to the larger number of soldiers and the ever present darkness.

I can hear the faint whisperings of regular titans in my mind but they're so incredibly faint it sounds as if they're miles away. It's probably just because they're asleep, or whatever it is titans do at night. The bustle of nearby riders fills the air even as we draw out to keep a space of about ten metres between each unit. This time I'm in the middle of the central rank, only a few spots behind the command squad at the front.

I glance over to my left to where Eren is gritting his teeth and riding forwards with his eyes locked at the ground. 'You okay?' I ask him telepathically. He glances in my direction briefly before realising I'm not actually speaking.

 _"I'm fine. It's just, we're actually going back aren't we? We've been dreaming about going back for years now, but it's finally time."_

'We haven't seen it in six years. It's probably in ruins by this point.'

 _"Probably. But we were able to rebuild Trost after it was damaged; we can do the same for Shiganshina."_

'What happens afterwards I wonder?'

 _"That all depends on what we find in the basement doesn't it?"_

'Yeah. I'd almost forgotten about that a while back. What's supposed to be down there anyway?'

 _"To be honest I don't really know. My dad said it would be important, that it would explain everything. Maybe it's a book or recording of some sort with information we can use."_

Suddenly an idea occurs to me and a terrible feeling wells up in me. 'Eren, Reiner and Bertolt know that there's meant to be something valuable down there. They may not know which house is yours, but they'll undoubtedly search every basement they can find.'

 _"Oh shit! I never thought about that! But well, I suppose we have to hope dad didn't just leave whatever it is easily visible."_

'You're hoping he hid it somewhere?'

 _"Well, mom went down there several times while he was working on whatever it was and she never seemed to have any idea about what was going on. I certainly hope he was able to hide it somewhere, otherwise we'll be in pretty much the same place as before."_

'Except with a lot more land.'

 _"We're not going to be able to make proper use of it for years though. It'll take months to clear out all the titans and even then we won't be able to repopulate for generations. Wall Maria is more symbolic than anything else, what we need is the information in that basement."_

'It would help if the El'Ekar would be a little more talkative as well. They're still refusing to tell us about what happened to turn Annie, Reiner and Bertolt.'

 _"Idiots! We need to know what happened can't they see that?"_

'It's possible whatever happened is a cause of some shame for them. From what we can make out those three used to be part of their group when they were small children. Something happened and they lost them. Whatever it was it likely doesn't put them in a good light.'

 _"That shouldn't matter. We've come too far to worry about those sorts of things now! After this is over we're going to have to get this information out of them."_

'For now let's worry about getting through tonight.'

 _"It shouldn't be so bad right? I mean, all of the titans are unconscious so we won't have to fight any of them."_

'That's how it ought to be, but I personally don't feel confident that's the way it'll turn out.'

The Regiment moves over the landscape like a black carpet dotted with points of light. The small rays of illumination are all pointed into beams straight ahead by shutters on the lamps. This casts auras of light out in front of each person, meaning that faces are heavily shadowed. As clouds slip over the moon everything falls into darkness besides the small pinpricks of light. They're brighter than torches of course, but even so it feels very dark and cold all around me with no light playing across my face.

I glance to the left and right, and I'm barely able to make out the other riders in the Special Operations Squad. They're all just dark shapes moving forwards over the ground, the rider rising and falling slightly as the horse beneath them rushes on into the blackness.

I shiver inwardly. The last time I was out in such complete darkness was when I was captured by the Beast Titan. Even though I managed to escape, the creature himself put a terrible kind of dread in me. In fact, it was an awful lot like the feeling I had when Hange I were discussing that voice from my memories. I briefly wonder if that might be because they were same person, but I quickly dismiss the thought. The Beast Titan's voice wasn't as deep as this one, and it was echoier whereas this one had a slight throaty growl to it. 'The titans that were inside of Wall Rose that night, how could they have gotten there?' I wonder.

It was a question we'd spent hours pondering over with no success. We thought they might have climbed over the Wall like the Beast Titan had, but there was no evidence of other titans scaling the Wall. The Beast Titan left cracks and marks where he'd managed to make slight hand and foot holds in the smooth surface. Besides, there's no way ordinary titans could have managed to even crack any part of the Wall, let alone chip out climbing holds. We then thought there might have been a tunnel of some kind, but the searches turned up nothing.

With the discovery of the 'titan drug' a new, very disturbing possibility was opened up. What if, the titans had already been inside of the Walls when the Beast Titan arrived, except in human form? The idea that the titans that we found during the breach alert were in fact humans that had been transformed into titans makes my skin crawl. On top of that there was that thing my titan said to me once. He said that it was impossible for a titan to exist without a human.

"What if," Armin began in a very grave voice, "what if there's no such thing as titans?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Eren with a bewildered look.

"He means," said Hange, looking very seriously down at the floor boards, "it's possible that titans are simply humans in a gigantic, crazed, fleshy cage. The weak spot at the back of the neck is always one meter long and ten centimetres across. Oddly enough though, it appears to tapper down rapidly after the first twenty centimetres down or so, so that the rest is only around five centimetres wide."

"Oh dear god," I gasped, "Those measurements, they correspond with the vital parts of the human nervous system!"

"Exactly," said Hange with a grim nod. "The brain is held at the topmost part of the nape and the spinal cord runs down the rest of the weak spot."

"But, aren't there sometimes exceptions to the rule?" asked Eren, his voice carrying some aspect of desperation to deny this idea. "Some titans' weak spots are smaller than that aren't they?"

"Children's nervous systems aren't as developed," explained Armin in a disgusted voice, "They'd take up less space than an adult's would."

"We don't know this is correct of course," pointed out Hange hastily. "But, but it does explain a lot of things that didn't make sense up until now. Like when Reiner was throwing titans at Eren after he escaped. His goal was to get one of the titans to eat him so that they'd absorb the Coordinate power and turn back into a human. On top of that we have an entire village of people unaccounted for from the area around where we thought the Breach occurred. The number of inhabitants corresponds exactly with the number of titans that were encountered, and killed."

"So, you're saying that all of these years I've been killing humans, not monsters?" asked Levi.

"That's the way it looks," said Armin gloomily.

"Who, who would do something so sadistic as to turn people into monsters like that?!" spluttered Eren.

"Whoever it is, they've a lot to answer for," said Levi grimly.

"It's unlikely to be an easy task to make them pay for it," pointed out Hange. "We don't know who, or what, this person is. We know that they must be extremely powerful in order to control the Titans. We also know that they exist outside of the Walls. There's also the fact that some of the Riesses referred to them as 'the First King'."

"If he is the First King, he must be pretty old by now," said Eren a little flippantly.

"That's precisely my point," said Hange. "This being is likely to be very old, and yet it isn't dead. That implies that either they're someone wired into a sort of 'super titan', or that they aren't really human at all. Either way, I don't like the idea."

"What exactly do our friends in the El'Ekar have to say about this?" asked Levi with a sideways glance at Amanda who was seated cross-legged off to the side of the room.

She looked somewhat upset at that and nodded. "From what we know that theory's spot on. At least we think it is. No one really knows anything about the Titans for certain but this is a point we've been taking as fact for a while now."

"Might I ask why you didn't tell us this sooner" asked Erwin.

Amanda looked down at the floor. "I may be the leader, but I'm still bound by the majority vote if it sways enough against me. The others want to keep information on a need-to-know basis and I'm not allowed to overrule them."

Eren grunted bitterly at that and looked away. Levi said nothing, but I could see a kind of quiet regret in his eyes. The First Captain rarely if ever expresses any real form of emotion. If you know the signs properly though, you can spot rather a lot of clues as to how he's feeling.

Everyone else is most defiantly not happy with the El'Ekar at the moment. Whilst I'm frustrated at their tight-lipped attitude as well, I'm starting to worry about something. I suspect something happened in the time between when I first became a titan, and when mom and dad found me. I'm not sure what, but several of my memories seem to fit into a time space that has to have been at a point between. After seeing the woman with a sword that matches Amanda's exactly, I'm starting to wonder about that space of time more and more. The sword is meant to be an ancestral weapon that her family passes down the line of seniority. There aren't many like it around these days since they're of no use against titans, and only a few people understand the proper techniques about how to use them. They're called rapiers, designed for striking at the exposed joints in a warrior's armour. Of course, soldiers don't wear armour these days so most people choose to use other kings of weapons instead.

The weapon itself is very recognisable with a golden spherical guard with engravings on it like a dragon. The pommel has a red gemstone set into it and handle itself is bound in black leather. For a sword I'd have to say it's quite beautiful, certainly more elegant than the blades we use for killing titans. I was a little surprised to see that Amanda was bringing it with her on this mission, since it's no real use against an opponent more than five times the size of a person. The fact that that sword is in my memories and is being used by a different person really makes me wonder though. Was that woman one of her ancestors? If so, how long ago is it?

"Matthias, hey Matthias!" Eren's voice jolts me out of my thoughts and back into the dark night.

"Wh- what is it?" I stutter, shaking my head a little to clear it.

"You looked like you spaced out for a bit there," says Eren. "We're getting close to the Forest. Look, you can just see it away there on the horizon."

I peer out into the black veil of the night. I can make out a darker smudge away to the formation's right. I shiver at the memories of the place. The first time I was there I had my right leg bitten off by the Female Titan. The second time was after being captured by Reiner and Bertolt, just before that nightmare battle over the flats beyond. This time the Regiment steers around it; there's no need to break up our path this time.

There have been dozens of red flairs sent up of course, but so far no reports of casualties. All of the titans have just been sitting or lying down with their eyes closed. Despite the massive body of soldiers moving by them, the titans remain undisturbed and continue to sleep. That is, whatever travesty of sleep their terrible position affords them. The idea that these might be people makes me sick.

 _"How much farther do you think it is until Shiganshina?"_ asks Eren silently.

'This is past the halfway point. I'd say another two hours or so maybe. If we timed it correctly we should arrive about an hour before day break.'

 _"Argh! I hate this place at night. Even with so many people around I feel exposed!"_

'Well, it's better than making the trip during the day. At this rate we'll be through without any loses at all. God knows we're going to need every soldier we can get when we arrive.'

The Regiment continues to thunder on through the darkness. The cold bites away at me from every side and I pull my cloak tighter around my shoulders. Thankfully the entire Regiment went through night training for the past week, so my body's internal clock is on the opposite schedule to how it would normally be. Still, the dark and the sight of the moon and stars keep nagging at my instincts, telling me that I need to go to sleep soon. I push my internal cravings for a warm bed down as far and as hard as I can. This night is still a long way from being over, and it's probable I'll still be on my feet well into the daylight hours.

Gradually I become aware that there's a stirring from up ahead as whispers begin passing down the line. A Scout named Sedric who's riding in front of me turns his head back to look at me. "The front line spotters have sited Wall Maria!" he whispers excitedly. The flickering light from the lamps shows the smile spread across his face. "You lived in Wall Maria too right?" he asks me, keeping his voice low.

"Lots of different places but always within Maria," I reply nodding.

"You looking forward to seeing your old home again?"

I smile grimly to myself. "I'm not really sure if I ever had a home really. I lost it over a hundred years ago and I've never found a new one to replace it."

"Oh, right I'm sorry I forgot." He bites his lip and looks a bit guilty about bringing up unpleasant memories for me.

"Don't worry about it," I whisper back with a wave of my hand. "Where did you live before six years ago?"

"The very place we're headed: Shiganshina. I was a private in the Garrison Regiment stationed there. After we were all put to flight like a bunch of headless chickens six years ago I swore I'd redeem myself. I poured all my efforts into becoming a better soldier so that I'd be able to stop something like that happening again. I wasn't at Trost when the breakthrough occurred though; I was part of the reinforcements General Pixis brought with him."

"What prompted you to join the Scouts?" asks Eren suddenly.

Sedric looks at him in surprise. He didn't realise he was listening to our conversation. "You did," he says simply. "After I heard that the titan kid was going to be paired with the Scouts I requested a transfer without a second thought. Well, maybe there were a few. But thus far I've had no reason to regret my choice."

"Were you part of the 57th Recon Mission?" I ask.

"Yeah. I was part of the left wing so I never saw the Female Titan until Stohess. No offence to you guys but, she was one ugly son of a bitch."

"Titans usually are," says Eren nodding glumly.

"All right," interrupts Captain Levi from the head of the squad, "That's enough chit chat back there. We're less than half an hour away from Shiganshina now so stay sharp. We can expect action before dawn."

We all fall silent and stare forwards between the ears of our horses. I smile inwardly as I remember how-despite the odds against it-I was able to find Edward again in the Scout's stables. This horse-just like the rest of us-has had more than his fair share of good luck. Suddenly there's a crack from several rows ahead and off to our left from inside a small copse of trees. A thin tendril of smoke can just barely be distinguished in the dark. I strain my eyes to make out the colour, and my blood turns to ice. The light blue trail is followed by several more like it, announcing the presence of a titan shifter.


	6. Wall Maria Part 2

Chapter 4: Wall Maria Part 2: Ambush

"Matthias what can you hear?!" barks Levi.

"Nothing yet!" I call back.

I do my best to relax my thoughts and probe towards the small clump of trees. I can feel whoever it is, but I can't tell exactly which one they are. Suddenly there's a booming howl from the trees, followed by several loud grunts. The sound of snapping branches and falling trees echoes back through the thin darkness towards us as a massive shape bursts out of the trees only a few hundred meters away. "You should not have come here!" roars the Beast Titan before throwing back his head and emitting a kind of shriek that makes me tense up with a short of primal fear.

"Alter course," orders Levi curtly. "We do not engage unless we have no choice. Our top priority is reaching Wall Maria and sealing the hole."

Eren grits his teeth and growls quietly to himself but doesn't protest. The Levi Squad breaks away from the rest of the formation and begins to make a wide arc around and away from the Beast Titan's position. Looking over my shoulder I can just make out the shapes of soldiers leaping from the saddle and firing their ODM Gear. One of them is snatched immediately out of the air by a massive fist while a second smashed into the dirt. "Eyes front!" snaps the Captain. I turn around just as the Beast Titan bites off the upper body of his struggling victim.

I can feel my emotions waging a horrible battle with my flight instincts inside of me. Back there is a terrifying monster and a big part of me just wants to put as much space as possible between it and me. But there are also soldiers laying down their lives in an effort to buy us time. _"Ah that feels good! I haven't tasted human blood in over five years now. Those two brats have no idea what they're missing out on. Now then, where were we? Oh yes, you were all about to die weren't you?"_

'Shut up!'

 _"What's wrong boy? Are you afraid? You should be."_ There's a massive echoing howl from behind us followed by the sound of pounding feet from every direction.

"Enemies closing from multiple directions," says the Captain calmly, "Squads six and three to break off and engage all incoming targets. Our highest priority is protecting Matthias and Eren."

"Understood sir!" answers one of the Corporals before leading his soldiers off to the left.

The entire formation seems all of a sudden to have turned into a battle ground. I can't see much in the darkness, but from the flashing glimpses of light cast by the lamps and torches it looks like all of the titans in the area have decided to take a night time walk. All around massive humanoid shapes plough through the groups of riders. The zombified monsters snatch at the Scouts nearby, and several of them grab their targets.

A woman lets out a scream of panic just before the jaws-dripping with saliva-snap shut over her head and shoulders. Numerous titans are felled all around, causing clouds of steam to add to the already chaotic scene. The worst part is that in most places combat is taking place on level ground, meaning that besides the titans there's nothing to hook onto. I see a man land after a successful strike, only to be snatched up by a ten metre tall newcomer.

"There's no many of them!" I gasp.

"Be quiet and keep moving," says Levi curtly.

We put the horses to full speed and race off into the dark. From behind us I can hear booming footsteps as the Beast Titan pursues. Levi looks back over his shoulder at our pursuer before turning to our last remaining escort squad. "Break off and focus on slowing him down. At top speed we should be able to reach Shiganshina in about ten minutes. Our horses will be blown but that won't matter. Do not attempt to eliminate him; just focus on drawing his attention."

"Yes sir," says the Corporal swallowing nervously. I can understand his apprehension. Soldiers who have attempted to engage intelligent types don't have the highest survival rate thus far. Despite his obvious feelings the Corporal along with the rest of his followers draw up to a sudden stop, leaving us to race on ahead. A few seconds later and the pounding footsteps cease. I can hear the wiring of ODMs for a moment, before we're carried far enough away that I lose the specific sounds amidst the maelstrom of battle.

As we shoot over the top of a rise I can see Shiganshina clearly. Its gray emotionless walls loom up towards the sky, unchanged since the last time I saw them. A number of small buildings lie scattered around the gate into the city, like a handful of spare stones tossed carelessly aside by a builder who has finished his work and has no further need for materials. The shattered gateway brings back memories that send a shiver down my spine. The Armoured Titan looming up to his full height, enshrouded within clouds of steam and dust. At the time I would never have dreamed that that titan might have contained a person, most certainly I would never have thought to become one of those people myself.

Titans still walk through the gapping, despite it being open for years now. Their numbers seem to be unending, constantly pouring through that breach in our defences to fill the lands beyond. 'Not for much longer,' I remind myself. The squad thunders down the hill towards the small cluster of excess materials. Once we're back on the flats again it looks much further away than it did a few moments ago.

This far ahead there are only a handful of Scouts present. The forwards spotters are scattered about, trying to keep the titans in the area away from us. Suddenly a seven metre tall titan with a disgusting bulbous head, wide mouth and what looks like two rows of teeth bursts out of a group of trees to our right. "Scatter!" cries Levi, as the titan dives at us.

I twist my mount off to the left as the disgusting creature lands with a massive thump on its stomach. I grimace as I see it rise back to its feet with a sticky red mess coating its chest. I'm not prepared to look to see who didn't make it. "Anderson, Kirk, break off and deal with this thing!" orders Levi. "The rest of you keep moving."

The two Scouts bolt off to the left and right. Levi urges his horse forwards and the three of us that are left follow him. Behind me I can hear the whizzing of ODM cables as the two soldiers attack the monster. Titans are roaming all over the place, their gigantic forms framed in frantically waving lamplight. The squad weaves around the behemoths, taking as wide a birth of combat as possible. I glance back over my shoulder to see innumerable dark lines streaked across the night sky. The signal flares are like trails of dark blood. The screeching sounds of battle that echo down from the higher plane add an unpleasantly fitting backdrop.

I turn back to the way ahead of us and grit my teeth. All we have to do is reach the Walls. Once we do we can get away from all of our pursuers on the ground and make a break for the outer gate. I glance over at Eren. His eyes are wider than I've ever seen them and his pupils have dilated into sharp points. The intensity that his stance has goes through me like a lightning bolt. It crosses my mind that if somebody else had received the coordinate power we might likely all be dead now. A lot of people would have been too afraid of themselves, or might have buckled under the pressure. But Eren, well, the thing is I think he's just far too focused on revenge to care. It strikes me that when this all over he probably won't know what to do with himself.

We thunder over the ground, the horses racing so fast they spend less than a tenth of a second touching the ground. There was a story about a horse that could run so fast he was able to take off and fly. Right now, it feels like my horse just might.

I look up at the sky and to my surprise see a faint grey colour seeping into it. I follow the new light away to the left. Away in the east the sun is beginning to rise. The first rays of dawn light strike out over the panicked field of battle. Dawn, an appropriate time for Mankind's Retaliation. If we can mend the gate everything will change and Humanity will have a new dawn. My gaze locks down towards the gate and my stare intensifies. 'Forwards, just ride forwards and don't look back!'

The squad bolts around a pair of ten metres titans, that have their attention absorbed by a trio f Scouts riding around them in circles. As we get clear there's a bellowing howl like a massive gale of wind from behind us. Eren glances over his shoulder as does Sedric. Levi remains focused on the front, and swallowing my fear I decide it's best if I do the same.

"Humans!" roars the Beast Titan, his voice echoing out across the open plain. "I am coming for you! There is no mercy left for you here! Your time in this world is over!"

'Go to hell!' I scream back, deliberately sending the cry out like a shockwave, so that it enters the minds of everybody in the area. 'I don't know what you are, but you don't belong here. You're the uninvited guest that refuses to leave. Well, we're about to show you the door!'

"Don't reply!" snaps Levi. "You're wasting energy and focus by doing that. Concentrate on what's important."

I bite my tongue reluctantly and stay quiet. "You no longer have the right to this world!" continues the Beast Titan. "My King gave us this entire world, all except this one scrap of dirt where he let you scrape out a living on the rocks! No more shall we tolerate the presence of you filthy insects!"

"Keep riding!" shouts the Captain. "Only another minute or so and we're there."

We pass the first building then. It's a watchtower made from pale stone bricks. The slate tiled roof has been ripped off and I can barely make out the faint traces of dark-almost black-red around the opening. The last hiding place from some group of poor souls six years ago. Then two more buildings come past; one on either side of us. Small trading posts, stables, single story cottages, there's even an inn that's been half crushed by a gigantic foot.

Not far now, not far. I can hear the pounding of gigantic feet and hands over the ground behind me. I continue to resist the urge to look over my shoulder and instead focus on straight ahead. I can feel the flight instinct burning up and overwhelming me now, and I can feel that Edward has it as well. In fact, I think all of us must be feeling it now, that terrible need to run as fast and as hard you can away from death. But this is a death that I know I can't out run. This death is faster than me, this death is stronger. 'Doesn't matter, all I need to do is reach the gate.'

"We're not going to make it!" cries Eren. "Captain he's too close! We need to fight!"

Levi shoots a glance back towards Eren, and then at the looming shape behind him. Grunting bitterly he turns to face the front. "Eren, Matthias, you two keep riding and get to the Wall. You know what you have to do once you get up there. Reinhard," he continues, looking in Sedric's direction, "You and I are going to slow it down."

Sedric looks terrified, but scowls in determination and nods. "Yes sir."

"Don't be stupid!" screams Eren. "Let us fight him we can win!"

"You don't know that!" snaps Levi, "And you don't need to find out! I'm ordering you now Yeager, go and plug that fucking gate!"

Before Eren can say another word Levi reduces the pace of his horse and Sedric follows suit. As Eren and I speed ahead Levi draws his blades, the steel flashing like liquid fire in the morning sun. Eren lets out a grunting gasp and bows his head. He doesn't slow down though, maintaining his pace towards the Wall. I can't feel a thing right now except blind adrenaline. Even fear is falling away from me at this point. My body and mind don't know what they want anymore, so the only thing left is me. And right now all I want is to win.

500 metres, 450 metres, 400, 350, 300, 250, 200. _"Sorry guys,"_ says a voice that I immediately recognise, _"this is as far as you two go."_ The tiny speck of a figure breaks away from the Wall and begins to fall down towards road far below. Just like six years there's a massive clap of thunder and the ground shakes as the giant feet crash down into the dirt. A great rolling wave of steam rushes over us, mixed with dust and grit. Eren and I draw out horses up to a sudden stop. Hooves skid and send tiny versions of the same great dust cloud into the air around us. These smaller puffs are engulfed in the far more massive grey brown cloud.

As it blows away I let out the groan of someone who's just run the most terrible odds, only to find an impassable wall blocking his path. The wide mouth splits apart as the two plates slide aside. A hiss of steam billows out into the cracked road, surrounding the titanic, armour plated legs. The light of morning trickles over the edge of the giant. The grey hair, the burning yellow eyes and the hulking, wide shoulders.

The Armoured Titan stands immovable, only ten metres in front of us. _"Welcome home,"_ says Reiner.

"You," hisses Eren, "you stupid bastard!"

 _"I don't have time for your tantrums Eren,"_ replies Reiner, even though he knows Eren can't hear him, _"Time's up. The sand has run out of the hourglass. You're at the gate of hell, and it's been broken open!"_

Suddenly and without warning the Armoured Titan lashes out, his metre wide fist smashing into Eren and his mount. The horse is crushed to death instantly and Eren's body goes flying backwards through the dirt. He bounces several times over the rocky ground and then lies still.

I watch in horror as the Armoured Titan advances to stand over him. He lifts his foot to bring it down on Eren's comparatively tiny body. _"Fuck, you."_ The foot rushes down but before it reaches Eren a massive blast of light forces me to look away. As my visions clears I can see the armoured foot in the grasp of two equally massive hands. With the skin still growing over his fingers, the Berserker Titan shoves upwards with his full strength, sending the Armoured Titan backwards with an unpleasant snap.

He lands in the road with a huge crash. The second steaming giant advances, his eyes burning their usual fierce green. The Berserker roars and at the same time I hear Eren shriek, _"this is where you did it! This is where you lost all semblance of your humanity Reiner! When this day is over, I swear I'll make you regret it!"_

Before his opponent can right himself the Berserker slams his foot down into his chest. He grabs the Armoured Titan by the throat and pulls him into the air. He then proceeds to thrown him violently into the ground, keeping a hold of him as he does so. He repeats the process over and over again, smashing the Armoured Titan's skull into the hard packed earth again and again. Finally, he grabs him by the wrists and whirls him around. Not unlike someone in a dance the Berserker spins several times, clasping the Armoured Titan's hands. But very much unlike dance he lets go suddenly, sending his enemy flying through the air to crash into the Wall.

The Berserker Titan howls in triumph, sending a rush of steam from between his jaws. 'Eren!' I cry out mentally, 'Calm down! Remember, they're not the objective. We need to get to the gate.'

 _"Right,"_ Eren growls, a little reluctantly. _"It'll be faster if I shed this thing now and make a double transformation at the gate."_ The back of the Berserker's neck splits open and Eren slips out, hurriedly ripping his hand free from the stringing red threads. He jumps nimbly down from the back of the titan corpse and swings into the street. He hurries over and clambers onto the back of my horse. "We've probably only got a few seconds before he's up and after us again," he says grimly, "so we'd better make them count."

I nod in agreement and urge Edward in a gallop. I don't bother with a build up; I simply throw him into full speed. I'll admit I'm a little worried that this kind of punishment could kill him, but there are more important things at stake right now than the life of a horse. As we reach less than fifty metres from the Wall I bring to a sudden halt.

Eren and I leap out of the saddle hurriedly, both firing our hooks into the looming edifice before us. As I swing around and upwards, I risk a hurried glance off to the left where the Armoured Titan was thrown. Half buried in the ground I can see the outline of the titan through the curtain of steam. The monster is slowly hauling itself to its feet, each piece of the movement a clear effort. _"You're going to pay for that Eren,"_ Reiner growls.

Then I'm up above the top of the Wall. A second shot into the top of the walkway and I'm pulled onto it. The two of us land neatly with a slight skid and I look down at the city bellow. The place that six years ago I called home has changed since I last saw it. Fires had begun to break out when we were being evacuated and with no humans around they must have blazed out of control. Nearly every street is charred and blacked. Most buildings would have collapsed from the fire alone, and all of those that didn't seem to have been smashed in by titans looking for their prey. Shiganshina is a broken ruin, black and cracked apart at the seams. Down amongst the ruins I can see titans lumbering steadily forwards, following the straight line of the main street between the two gates.

"It's gone," whispers Eren, "all of it is gone."

I don't say anything. What can I say? He's right; this city is nothing like it was when we last saw it, nothing like it was when I first saw it. The shining white stone buildings, the bright red tiled roofs the numerous small parks with flowers and bushes. And the people who used to live here. So many of them are dead now, many died when the gate was broken, and almost all of them have died over the past six years.

"No," I say finally, "we're still here. And we did exactly what we said we'd do; we've come back home."


	7. Wall Maria Part 3

Chapter 5: Wall Maria Part 3: Return to Shiganshina

The bustling crowds of the market place felt strange and dangerous. People moved around me like rivers, great currents threatening to pull me away. I stuck close to my mother's side and looked around at people nervously. There were more people there than I'd ever seen in one place before in my entire life. So many faces that I couldn't commit even a tenth of them to memory. I decided to stop looking and trained my attention on the stall my mother was looking at. It was a fish mongers and as I looked the man's cleaver came down to cut the head off of the silver fish on his cutting board.

My eyes widened slightly at what seemed to be something of a display of carnage. The blood coating the edge of the cooking implement sent a shiver through me. I couldn't think why but it made suddenly feel sick. I pulled anxiously at my mom's sleeve prompting her to look down at me. She looked into my abnormally wide eyes and smiled understandingly. She could always understand even the faintest of signals that I would give her, back in the days when my emotions were still in lock down.

Taking me by the hand she led me to a small open space with a fountain. She sat me down on a bench next to it and squatted down so she could look me in the eyes. "I won't be long okay?" she said reassuringly, "just wait here until I get back."

"All right," I replied calmly. Now that I was away from the large group of people, I could feel my usual self confidence and unemotional persona returning. Thinking about how cold I could be at times makes me shiver now. It seems far more akin to Mikasa than to the me I know now. My mother left and blended away into the crowd of people.

I looked around the open space idly, running my fingers through the clear water behind me. On the far end of the bench I'm sitting on was a boy about my age holding a book. His blonde hair was rough and from the looks of it not cut very often. He looked in my direction nervously. His eyes seemed to have a kind of curiosity but also an intense anxiety.

"Hello," I said calmly.

"Um, hello," he replied nervously. "My name's Armin, Armin Arlert. What's yours?"

"Matthias Quinn," I said. "What are you reading?" I asked curiously, sliding a little closer and trying to peer at the open page.

"Oh, nothing much," said Armin hurriedly, snapping the book shut hastily, "it's just, a history book."

My eyes widened. "Really? Can I see please? We don't have any books at home so I don't get to read very much."

Armin bit his lip a little nervously, but nodded. He opened the book and held it out to me so that I could see the pages. There was a picture a huge battle on the right page with people in metal armour and on horses. At the front was a hill with a group of men shooting arrows from long bows. I peered curiously at the name underneath the image. "A. gin. co. urt," I read slowly, "Agincourt. Where is that?"

"I don't know," admitted Armin. "It says here it was in a country called France, but I don't know where that is. It isn't written in the common language so I can't read very much of it."

"What's it written in?" I asked.

"My grandfather calls it Latin," said Armin. "I only know a few words of it so I mainly just look at the pictures and try to guess what it's about."

"Oh, I can read that," I said.

Armin looked at me in surprise, "really? I don't think I've met anyone who could read Latin before."

"I might be wrong, but I think I can," I said, a little less sure of myself all of a sudden. I peered at the words on the page and read slowly. "In the year of our lord 1415, his royal highness King Henry the fifth took the armies of the French to battle at Agincourt, rather than wait for them to bring ruin upon him. The French leaders having blocked his way to Calais and possessing the larger force thought themselves confident of victory."

I stopped and looked up at Armin. His mouth was hanging open. "You, you can really read that?" he asked.

I nodded. "My parents taught me a lot of things. My father was a very intelligent man."

"I suppose so," murmured Armin, shaking his head.

I shake my head as the memory is torn away by the air rushing past me. That was eight days after I first arrived in Shiganshina. At the time I believed that my father had taught me to read Latin, but in reality it was actually Eren's father over a hundred years ago. My adopted father was the one who taught me to read properly in the common language ironically. I swing around the remains of the crumbled tower in front of me, flying over that same fountain and square. The fountain is now broken and crushed, while the square itself is covered in black from the burnt structures nearby.

Eren and I continue to streak through the streets, swing from the broken and charred ruins that still follow the old layout of the street. Suddenly Eren skids to a stop on the broken remains of a roof. Surprised I pull up and land light behind him. "Eren, what is it?"

"Down there," he says hollowly, pointing down into the street. I follow his finger to a pile of crushed timbers with a gigantic boulder wedged on top of it. Some of the beams appear to have been ripped aside. Then I recognise the street layout and I understand. That smashed pile of wood and stones is all that is left of Eren's home. "The last time I was here, I saw her die," says Eren. His voice quavers slightly, but stays fairly level. "It ate her. That thing picked her up, snapped her spine and bit her in half. And now, as if that wasn't enough, I know that that monster had a person trapped inside who was being forced to watch from the other side of it. Tell me Matthias, what's it like to eat someone?"

I feel my blood run cold for a few moments and I put my hand over my mouth. Eren looks back at me. His gaze is intense, filled with a kind of concentrated energy, though whether that energy is from anger or sorrow I can't tell. "It's, disgusting," I manage. "They struggle and scream, and you can feel the blood as it spurts into your mouth and over your tongue. The worst part would have to be the bones, the way the bones crunch between your teeth, cracking like splinters." I can't say anymore. I know I must have gone white as a sheet. If it wasn't for the massive amount of adrenaline in my system I'd probably be sick.

Eren scowls. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"No, I can understand the question. I can also understand the intent behind the question. If these people are really in the position I was in, the only thing I can feel for them is pity. Killing them is the kindest thing you can do for them."

He looks down at the broken cobles. A faint breeze catches his raven hair, sending the strands flipping around his forehead. I realise how much Eren has changed since I first met him. The impulsive ten year old who was angry at everyone and wanted to see the world is gone. He's been replaced by a man carrying a heavy burden. In fact, we've all changed into people whose former selves probably couldn't have recognised them.

"We should keep moving," I say after a few more moments of silence.

"Yeah, yeah we should," says Eren. He steps off the edge of the roof and swings away. With a sigh I leap off and follow him.

We're faster on manoeuvre gear than an ordinary titan so long as we're moving in a straight line, but the Armoured Titan is anything but normal. I glance over my shoulder back towards the inner gate. I can't see him above the tops of the taller buildings but the Armoured Titan is defiantly on the move back there. I can hear his steps pounding over the ground as he hunts around for us. I'm also looking nervously to the left and right for Bertolt or Forrae. So far the Thorned and Colossal Titans haven't shown themselves, but it feels as if it must be only a matter of time.

We cross over into the foremost quarter of the city and my heart starts racing. I can now see the outer gate, or rather the hole that gaps where the gate used to be. As I watch, a twelve metre titan walks through, glazed eyes staring around hungrily. Not much further now. Eren and I come to a stop on a roof top that remains mostly intact so long as you ignore the massive hole that's been punched in the far right side.

"It too open," I say.

"Yeah," agrees Eren. "They're probably trying to lure us in. But we can't sit here and do nothing with Reiner coming up from behind us can we?"

I breathe out hard. If only Armin were here right now. I'm neither good nor bad when it comes to making tactical decisions and Eren certainly isn't good. In the end I shrug and decide to just go with the best option that comes to mind. "It isn't much of a plan," I say, "But if I transform now, I can at least be ready to fight straight away. If any of them appear I'll hold them for as long as I can while you seal the gate."

Eren frowns, "the discharge from the transformation will light up our position like a signal flare. At the moment they don't know our exact position."

"We're assuming that. As you say this could easily be a trap. If it is then they may know where we are already."

The raven haired titan shifter groans in frustration. "I can't see a clear way into this," he says.

"I'm sure Lieutenant Arlert would be able to think of something," I reply.

"He probably could. Too bad Armin's not here isn't it?"

"Well, we don't have much more time left to choose. Do we continue on foot or change now?"

Eren sighs, "we are you delegating to me?"

I shrug, "you're Coordinate right?"

"You're royalty," he counters.

"Not anymore. But fine, if you want me to make the choice I'll go with my option."

Eren grimaces, then nods. "It's probably the best call anyway; we don't know where they are or what they know. We need to take the safer shot at this."

I nod before running and leaping off the edge of the building. Sinking my teeth into hand I let out a slight sigh. I already feel like I've just run a marathon after the night long ride combined with the frantic dash. Things have only just reached the halfway point though. The real fight is probably only just about to start.

I don't roar or even growl as I emerge out of the usual cloud of vapour. Instead I simply start walking towards the gate. I do my best to keep as much of the nearby terrain in my field of vision whilst watching Eren's position out of the corner of my eye. As we expected the transformation immediately keys Reiner in on our location and I can hear his pace begin to increase further back in the city. I increase my own pace to a run and focus on reaching the broken hole.

My feet pound over the cobbled ground, disturbing blood stains have been dry for six years now. I can hear the whizz of Eren's ODM Gear away to my right as we both make a bee-line for the gate. Behind me I can hear the footsteps of the Armoured Titan growing steadily closer. He won't catch us in time though. Once he does Eren will already be at the gate and transformed. I confident I can hold Reiner for the minute or so it will take Eren to seal up the hole.

Of course it isn't that simple. As we come within a hundred metres of the gateway, Eren is consumed in a ball of golden light and the Berserker Titan hits the ground running. Smashing the remnants of several burnt and crushed houses he sprints towards the opening. Just before he reaches it a second flash rockets up from the ground in front of gate to sixty metres high in the air. The gigantic legs are formed rapidly as huge strands of muscle whip around equally titanic bones. The Berserker draws up to a screeching halt as the Colossal Titan appears, blocking the gateway with his massive feet and shins.

I look up to where the comparatively small head is looking down at me with a pair of dead eyes. The titan seems to trail away, his already small head tapered away into an even smaller dot by the angle of vision. One of the huge feet swings backwards, just like it did a year ago at Trost and six years ago on the other side of this same gate. The foot and leg come forwards like a battering ram and both the Berserker Titan and I are forced to dive out of the way to avoid the swing. Having missed, the foot is hastily drawn back to its position covering the broken entrance.

 _"Shit!"_ gasps Eren inside my head. _"How do I get through now?"_

'Well I suppose, if you can't go through him or around him, you have to go over him,' I reply.

 _"What? You mean climb over the Wall?"_

'You can harden select parts of your body like the Female Titan right? So do what she did. Harden you fingers and use them to crack hand holds into the Wall.'

 _"Somehow I doubt Bertolt is going to be too thrilled about me climbing up right next to him."_

'Don't worry, I'll deal with that.'

 _"How?"_

'Remember when I was able to send out that beam between the head of Historia's Titan and my own? I think I may be able to do it again to Bertolt.'

 _"But his head's all the way up there,"_ Eren pointed out unnecessarily.

'Yes. That's why you're going to throw me.'

There was a moment's silence and then, _"are you crazy?"_

'No. You should be able to manage it. You threw Reiner about halfway up the Wall at one point, and I'm a lot lighter than he is.'

 _"Oh what the hell. Fine then, here goes."_ The Berserker Titan grabs me by the wrists and begins to spin around and around in circles. My own feet leave the ground nearly straight away and soon after I start to feel sick. _"Happy landing,"_ thinks Eren before letting go.

As I sky rocket into the air towards the Colossal Titan's head, I immediately begin to wonder if this was the best idea. The rush of air applies immense pressure against the skull of the Titan and my vision begins to blur. I realise that I over estimated how high Eren could throw me only as I slam into the Colossal's chest. The force of the impact causes the red giant to stagger backwards into the Wall behind him.

Frantically I grab on to the exposed cords of muscle, getting my fingers underneath the strands and gripping on tightly. 'Go now!' I think furiously at Eren as I bunch my legs and push off from my current spot. Since the Colossal has fallen backwards on an angle it makes it easier to jump up to a higher point.

 _"Get the hell off!"_ roars Bertolt mentally. Out of the corner of my eye I see the huge hands begin to move towards me. Desperately I grab onto the massive jutting collar bone, digging my fingers in as deep as they'll go. I do actually need to get a secure handhold; the agonising pain this will be causing Bertolt is just a bonus. As I scramble up to the same level as his neck, the ten metre tall head of the Colossal turns itself to look down at me.

'Hi Bertolt. Long time no see,' I think.

 _"Not long enough Riess."_

'I don't use that name.' Snarling I jump straight up onto the Colossal's face, grabbing bunches of flesh in order to hold on. I focus as intently as I can on communicating with Bertolt and suddenly a switch somewhere inside my brain flicks itself on. The same bright purple beam of light as before shoots out of me forehead, striking the Colossal directly between his eyes.

My eyes flicker open and I look about myself. The usual black void surrounds me on all sides. I glance over my shoulder to see my usual five metre tall companion standing over me. I'm surprised to see that Bertolt doesn't have a titan with him. Instead, what looks a rip in reality hovers just above and behind his head. A swirling whirlpool of colours can be seen through it. It's a little hypnotising and I quickly look away. Bertolt looks around himself, panic clearly visible in his eyes.

"Where am I?" he demands. I'm surprised by how scared his voice is.

In reply I shrug. "It isn't really anywhere as far as I know," I say. "It's just the place I go when I open up direct contact with someone."

"What exactly is going on?" demands Bertolt.

"I should have thought that would be obvious. I've paralysed your titan body in the real world so that Eren can get past you and seal the gate."

The tall titan shifter looks around himself in a helpless sort of way, then seems to decide there's nothing he can really do. "What's that thing?" he asks, pointing at the titan behind me.

"Him? Oh, he's just the personification of my titan form. At least I think that's what he is. It's rather strange though; you don't seem to have one."

Bertolt looks up at the glowing fissure nervously. "That's because I'm not a proper titan shifter like you and Eren are," he says. His voice wavers slightly and it's obvious that the rip in reality frightens him. "Reiner, Annie and I, well it's complicated."

"We've got time," I say. That's when the thought occurs to me that I'm not sure how to get out of this state. On the previous occasions I either fulfilled some sort of goal, or it ended spontaneously. I've never initiated it this deliberately before and I'm starting to realise that I'm wading out into water where I can't see the bottom. 'Oh well, at least I know how to swim.'

Bertolt shakes his head, "you're not getting anything from me Matthias."

"Why not?" I ask. "What are you guys so afraid of? What exactly is the First King?"

Bertolt's gaze flicks nervously towards the fissure behind him, but he stays silent. Then, after standing still for a few moments he says, "he's their creator, their leader, their god. The First King is Umbrakal the Great, rightful lord of the Earth." As he continues to speak his eyes glaze over and his voice becomes monotonous, as if he's repeating what someone else programme him to say. "He is the giver of life and of freedom. He was there when the world was formed from the void, and he will be there when it is engulfed in fire."

Bertolt's eyes return to normal and he looks down at the non-existent ground. I grimace, "you've basically described a god haven't you?" I ask.

"That's what he is," hisses Bertolt. "Now do you understand why you can't win? You're not fighting something from this world; the First King is something from beyond it. Victory against him is a fool's goal. The only option is to take what he'll give you and live out the rest of your life. Do you understand now, why we betrayed you all?"

I nod slowly, "I think I do. You're afraid that he'll kill everyone, you included."

"The only way for Mankind to survive is if we accept the cage we've been given," agrees Bertolt. "If we attempt go beyond it we won't be allowed to survive."

"What happened a hundred years ago?" I demand. "Where did this thing come from and what did it have to do with me?"

"I don't know."

"Are the Titans people?!" I shout.

Bertolt freezes and his face turns white. "So, you guys figured it out then did you?" he asks. "Yes, yes they're people."

"Why? Why would anyone subject people to that kind of suffering?" I ask. Memories of blood, screams and a terrible pain flash through me like lightning, and I realise that my hands are trembling.

"I don't know," he says. I realise to my surprise that tears are running down his cheeks. "I don't know, and I don't care. All I want is to live in peace. I just want to go home and write this all off as a bad dream. But you idiots won't let me. You keep fighting. Why do you keep fighting?!" he screams.

I stare into Bertolt's eyes. They're filled with fear, anger and grief. I can see the past few years imprinted on them. With a shiver I notice just how much like Eren's eyes they are. Just how much like mine are at times. I open my mouth, but no words come. All of a sudden I don't know why. 'Why? Why are we fighting when all of this could be undone and we could live in peace?' Then I remember all of the death I've seen. I remember all of the lives given in an effort to achieve victory for Humanity. Rivers of blood have already been spilled, and oceans more will be by the end of this conflict. Is it all worth it? Can anything be worth, so much death and destruction?

The question rebounds with chilling clarity off of Eren's own statement, screamed at the blue crystal surrounding Annie. "What could possibly be worth all this death and destruction?" At the time it had been directed against the enemy, but the same statement can just as easily be flipped around to go in reverse. We think of ourselves as Mankind's defenders but really, we aren't needed for that. Humanity only really needs to Walls to be safe. It was our own desire to become more that brought terror, danger and death upon us. If we really only cared about the well being of Mankind, we'd just submit to the wishes of the First King and let everything be returned to normal.

So, what is it that we want?

I lift my gaze again so that I'm staring straight into Bertolt's distraught eyes. "We keep fighting because we're human. Humans are naturally unsatisfied with anything but perfection. We can never achieve it in ourselves because we're human, but that never stops us trying. If we don't keep pushing for something more-a brighter tomorrow if you like-then we give up our humanity. Being held inside of a cage isn't a perfect kind of life, so naturally we can't sit still for it. Humans need to be free so that they can keep trying to become more. We have an ideal hardwired into us, and it's a part of our nature to pursue it. We can't give up on that."

"Then we'll all die," says Bertolt.

"Maybe we will," I admit, "but maybe we won't. If there is a God, a real one, then I don't think he would have made us to sit on our arses all day inside of a sheep pen. We can win everything, lose everything or we can take the scraps thrown off the side of the plate. I'm taking the first option."

Bertolt shakes his head, "then you're a fool."

"We'll see about that won't we? Just remember Bertolt, you're not a titan, you're a human." Suddenly the darkness pulls away and light seeps in from all angles. With a gasp my mind snaps back into the real world. I can see the face of the Colossal Titan staring up at me, eyes dead. Small trails of steam rise from the places where I've been tightly gripping his face.

I let go and quickly jump to the side. I land nimbly on top of the Wall and looked about myself. 'Eren? Eren what's happened?'

There's a delay before a tired voice replies, _"we did it Matthias. The breach is shut."_ I rush to look over the edge of the Wall. A sheet of white rock spans the broken opening of the outer gateway of Shiganshina. Standing his its hands pressed against the pale stone is a perfect statue of the Berserker Titan. The Gate of Shiganshina is closed.


	8. Wall Maria Part 4

Chapter 6: Wall Maria Part 4: Scorched Earth

A feeling of such complete relief washes over me that for a moment I forget where I am. The huge shadow looming over me quickly brings it all back to me. I turn in time to see a gigantic red hand closing around me. Even though he might move slowly in proportion to the rest of his body, the Colossal Titan's movements are still very fast relative to a normal person. Or for that matter an ordinarily sized titan. I can feel the air rushing past me through the gaps between the huge red fingers. I get a brief glimpse of the ground far away below me, covered in streets of charred ruins. Then all I can see is a spinning blur that's mostly blue.

If my titan body was capable of it I think I'd probably be sick. I spiral downwards through the air, heading for the ground at literally break neck speeds. I can feel several of my joints come loose before I impact. The biggest fall I'd ever had as a titan before now was when I was dropped straight down out of the Colossal Titan's hands about five months ago. That impact shattered my skull, dislocated my spine at multiple points and damaged my brain to the point where I was unable to receive any more sensory input than the feeling of the ground under my hands, and a slight tingly in my head. This time I don't even get the chance to feel the pain of the impact. The entire world instantly shuts out and I'm left in total sensory deprivation.

Under other circumstances it might actually be peaceful, being left alone with nothing but your thoughts to affect you. Right now though all I can feel is frustration and a little bit of panic. What's left of my body is totally defenceless right now. It would be child's play for any of our opponents to come and rip out my nape at any point. Irritably I try to probe around mentally for Eren's mind. Since my own body seems to have been protected I am able to find him. 'Ouch.'

 _"What the hell happened? Where are you?"_ asks Eren frantically.

'I don't know where I am right now. Bertolt grabbed me and pelted me into the ground. Odds are I'm on the other side of the city. I can't feel anything; none of my senses are working. I think it's possible the titan's entire brain may have been reduced to sludge.'

I can sense the disgusted face Eren's pulling even if I can't see it. _"I'm back over the Wall amongst the buildings,"_ he says. _"Let me know as soon as you're able to work out where you are. Now that Shiganshina's been secured all we need to do is keep it that way."_

'I suspect that's easier said than done,' I reply. 'We've run into Reiner, Bertolt and the Beast Titan so far. It looks like Forrae may be somewhere else. Even so, we'd be hard pressed to beat Reiner and Bertolt or the Beast Titan. Both at the same time? I won't deny I don't like our odds.'

 _"Who cares about the odds? We just stoppered Wall Maria, and up until recently everyone thought that was impossible. I don't know about you, but I'd sure like to get back at the people who put a hole in it in the first place."_ Eren's voice is starting to fill up with its old fire. It's good to know that the vengeful warrior hasn't had his edge blunted by success. Even so, I don't like our chances of winning this fight. It's two against three as it is.

Very slowly, my vision goes from black, to a faint grey as my eyes finally begin to regrow. I can feel a mound of broken pieces of what I presume to be wood underneath me. I can also feel pain, and lots of it. The smell of titan steam slips into my newly formed nostrils and I almost choke on the vast cloud around me. A blurry array of colours begins to appear in front of me and I turn my head to look down at what should be my own body. All I can see is a white mass of steam and a dark shape inside of it. As the edges on the images begin form and I can form clear boundaries between each part, I see that I wasn't actually damaged as badly as I thought.

The biggest hit was to my head, which landed first. The rest of my body mainly suffered from broken bones, but no major structural damage beyond that. I look about myself and begin to crawl forwards, out of the ruins of several houses that I've smashed my way through. Of course, these houses were mostly rubble or burnt timbers anyway. I was right when I guessed I was on the other side of the city. The northern face of the Wall is less than a hundred metres away from me.

'All right,' I think. 'I'm in the far north eastern corner of the city. It looks like I'm not far away from the canal. I think I can see the old water mill from here.'

 _"Oh, right,"_ replies Eren. _"I remember where that is. Let's try to head for the- shit!"_ He falls silent suddenly.

'Eren! Eren what's happening?'

 _"It's Reiner!"_ is all the response I get. Growling quietly to myself I start sprinting through the streets towards the far end of the city where Eren should be. The speed my titan body is capable of supporting is extensive, and I can't help but find the action of running just a little exhilarating, despite the circumstances. Since many of the buildings are so badly damaged I decide to forgo manoeuvring around them and simply smash through those ones which get in my way. I wrap my arms over my head as a shield to reduce damage from any substantial pieces of the structures and power forwards.

Suddenly I emerge into a more open area. I skid to a stop and look about me. I've come out onto the main road the runs through the middle of Shiganshina. I shiver as I remember how I crossed this road six years ago. People were running and screaming, and titans were gathered in the road in huge quantities as it was such an open area. Even now, I can see faded blood stains in the dirt along with the foot prints of panicked civilians and those of their far larger predators.

My reflections are interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps. I turn around to see the Beast Titan standing on the road, several hundred metres away from me in the direction of the entrance. "So," I hear his voice boom, "you actually did it. I suppose you must be feeling very satisfied with yourselves around this time right? You won't feel so happy when we're finished with you. You see, there are two parts to the task we've been set. The first we have been denied, but the second is still most certainly open to completion."

'You're going to kill us,' I reply simply.

"But of course," says the Beast Titan in a polite conversational tone of voice. "You and all of the other resistant ones are going to have to be removed. After all, if we're going to reaffirm the status quo, we need to be able to erase all memory of these events. No more titan shifters, no more rebels, just ordinary humans, content to live inside of their cage."

'That won't happen.'

"Maybe not," admits the Beast Titan, "but if it doesn't, I shall be perfectly happy. After all, we'll get to devour all of you!" His last words become a roar as he pounds down the street towards me. In panic I dive off of the road and into a side street. Behind me I can hear the Beast Titan landing with a huge crash and coming to a halt. I glance over my shoulder in time to see a pair of glassy black eyes turning to look at me. _"That's right, run!"_

I take a hasty side turn off to the left in hopes that I might shake him off. Of course that's not happening, since if I can smash my way through these ruined buildings, the Beast Titan with his far greater bulk should have no problem. As I sprint down one of the back streets there's the sound of splintering timbers and a huge mass of fur, flesh and smoke smashes into the lane ahead of me. Before I can change direction a massive fist comes flying out of the cloud dust and connects with the side of my head.

I have a brief moment of clarity where I can hear a slight cracking sound, before I feel myself being catapulted through the air. I feel several buildings behind me cracking and some piece of metal gashes my side open. The glancing impact causes me to spin in the air and I land with several unpleasant thuds. As I climb back to my feet as hastily as possible, I reach up to my face and snap my jaw back into place. 'Why does fighting as a titan always have to be so painful?' I wonder.

The very next second the Beast Titan is on me. I manage to duck his first swing and bring both of my fists into his stomach. The blow lifts and throws him about twenty meters backwards. As he pulls his head up I swing my left foot and smash it into his face. The impact more or less shatters my ankle. The Beast's head is hurled into the cobbles and the combination of the kick and the after impact more or less obliterates it. Not really knowing what else to do I snatch at the Beast Titan's nape, only to be met by a punch in the stomach. A second blow strikes me right on the weak spot, resulting in an unpleasant echoing ping. I'm hurled face first into the stone covered path. The taste of steaming blood floods into my mouth and I hiss.

Leaping forwards I crash straight into the Beast Titan as he attempts to climb back to his feet. My shoulder connects with his chest and we both fall back down into the road. Snarling I sink my teeth into my enemy's throat and lash out with another punch at his already heavily damaged head. Blood spurts into my mouth as at the same time I feel flesh and cracked bones giving way to my fist. The Beast Titan jerks in pain and slams me into the tumbled-down wreck of the house on my right. Something unyielding meets the small of my back and skewers me.

I scrabble around in the piles of rubble, sending dirt and dust into the air. With a great deal of difficulty I rip myself free, scrambling onto my knees. As I do a hand grabs hold of my head and pulls me up from the ground. I briefly get a glimpse of steaming corpse-like head with a grinning animal skull before I'm slammed back into the ground again. With a massive palm pressed into my face I flail wildly with my arms and legs. My left foot connects with something but doesn't seem to have any effect. I feel myself being pulled up again and I brace myself just before I'm sent rocketing down into the ground again.

I can feel that my spine and skull are taking serious damage from this. I grab at the Beast Titan's wrist and try to pull his hand away from me, bracing myself with my legs. As I lever his hand away from my face, the Beast Titan's other hand thunders down into my stomach. I cough a spurt of blood up into my mouth, and the red muck immediately begins to clog up my windpipe. Thankfully I don't need to breathe in this form or else I'd probably choke to death. Despite the impact of the punch I refuse to let go of the Beast Titan's arm. With a desperate heave I prize myself free and hurriedly roll to the left in an effort to get out of the way.

The next blow smashes into the ground just next to me and I hiss out a rush of steam. With a snarl I throw myself upwards into my opponent. The sudden impact causes the Beast Titan to stagger backwards. I claw at his face and kick him repeatedly in the stomach before hurriedly jumping away. I perform a flip in the air and manage to land reasonably neatly despite the damage to my body. For a brief moment I'm able to take in the state of the Beast Titan. His face is still healing, but most of his head has returned to normal. A few cuts and scrapes over the rest of his body are closing themselves rapidly, giving off faint trails of steam.

The two of us have already begun to clear an area of significant debris, so I should be able to make use of my superior agility. Of course, that's my only advantage here. If I end up grappling with him I'm at a major disadvantage. He's larger and far stronger than I am. I tilt backwards and forwards slightly on the balls of my feet as I bring my hands up into a fighting stance. The Beast Titan stares me down menacingly for a moment, before rearing up onto his hind legs and pounding his chest with his fists.

Howling a challenging roar he ploughs towards me. I nimbly leap to the left, putting my foot into his back as he goes past and sending him crashing into the ground. The Beast Titan looks back at me with an angry snarl and swings for me. Once again I jump back out of reach of the attack. The Beast Titan keeps attacking and I keep dodging. It's probably the thing I'm best at in a fight. As I take a running jump over the Beast Titan's head, I flip in mid air and smash my feet into his face. I land close to the ground and jump well out of reach. 'Having trouble?' I ask.

"It doesn't matter," huffs the Beast Titan, sending a cloud of steam out through his jaws. "You can dodge as much as you like, but you'll never win that way."

He's right of course. That prompts an internal frown, but there's nothing I can do about it. If I try to attack directly then he'll take me out. If this were a fight between humans, I could wear him down with indirect kicks whilst staying out of reach. But this isn't a fight between humans. The Beast Titan can heal any sort of injury I can inflict and I can't count on him getting tired. With a snapping growl the Beast Titan snatches at me with his long arms. I easily jump out of the way.

Suddenly I see a dark shape streaking through the air behind the Beast Titan. The next thing I know something large lands with a crash in the crumbling buildings thirty metres away. _"God dam it!"_ hisses Eren. I can see the shape of the Berserker Titan moving amongst the steam, smoke and rubble. The Beast Titan turns and smashes his way through those pieces of charred timber and cracked stone between him and the Berserker Titan. _"What the he-_ is all Eren has time to think before being smashed into the air.

He crashes down into the ground twenty metres away. Before the Beast Titan can keep moving on I jump onto his back, sinking my teeth into his nape. He lets out a choking noise bearing an undertone that sounds an awful lot like fear. He grabs at me with both hands and I'm only able to dodge him by dropping close to the ground. I punch him in the back of his right knee, causing him to stagger and fall forwards slightly. The Beast Titan whirls on the spot and smashes me in the face. I'm hurled into the ground and actually bounce back up again from the level of force applied. Coughing up blood and steam I scramble backwards, just avoiding the next blow.

Before the Beast Titan can press his attack something smashes into his head from behind, flooring him. Standing with clouds of steam billowing off of his body is the Berserker Titan. Unlike the last time Eren assumed titan form, his body is covered in armour plates, similar to those on the Armoured Titan. Flicking his hand out to the side, a short spike shoots out from his wrist. As the Beast Titan rolls over and lashes upwards, he dodges to the left before stabbing downwards into the Beast Titan's head. The Berserker jumps clear and stands next to me.

'Nice to see you,' I say.

 _"I'm afraid I brought some company,"_ grunts Eren. Right on queue a new figure comes barrelling into the cleared area. We both jump back as he comes to a skidding stop. He pants steam from his jaws and stares us down intently. As the Beast Titan climbs to his feet behind him the Armoured Titan raises both hands in a combat stance.

'Which one do you want?' I ask.

 _"I'll handle the monkey,"_ Eren growls. _"Just be sure to give me an opportunity to bash Reiner's skull in before you kill him."_

'It'd be my pleasure,' I snarl.

The Berserker Titan throws back his head and roars before charging forwards.


	9. Wall Maria Part 5

Chapter 7: Wall Maria Part 5: The Man in Chains

I roll under the swing before it demolishes the charred and battered structure behind me. As I come back to my feet I lash out with a kick to the back of the Armoured Titan's knee. The blow causes him to stagger but does nothing more. I jump backwards to stay clear and eye him warily. It's been five minutes now of the same thing. Dodging powerful swings and landing insignificant counTer blows of my own. I'm back in the same place as I was against the Beast Titan, and its beginning to irritate me.

Growling low in my throat I crouch down slightly, watching the Armoured Titan for any signs of his incoming attack. He leans ever so slightly to the right before breaking into a run. He's incredibly fast, but I already know which way to go. I jump into the air, angling myself slightly to the left. As he passes underneath me I slam my feet into the back of the Armoured Titan's neck. He ploughs forwards into the ground, sending a cloud of dust and splinters into the air. "Freaking son of a bi-

Before Reiner can finish his thought I'm on top of him. Grabbing frantically at his arms I shove him into a lock. The Armoured Titan responds by letting out a hissing grunt of pain and arching his back. If this had been an ordinary fight he'd never have tried that, as the manoeuvre more or less shreds the tendons in his right arm. But this is a battle between titans; all injuries are temporary. I hang on for dear life as I lose my grip on my opponent's arm. With a loud huff of steam the Armoured Titan pushes himself up onto his knees and reaches behind his head to grab at me.

Snarling I grab onto his hand with both of mine and lock my legs around his middle to hold on. For now his right arm is out of commission and I've got his left. All well and good so far, but what next? The Armoured Titan pulls furiously with his left arm, trying to drag me forwards. I strain with my entire body to hold on against a single limb of his. Finally, with a loud yapping _noise_ that I let out without thinking about it I sink my teeth into the open gap on the inside of his left elbow. Hot blood spurts into my mouth and I rip at the various stringy pieces of flesh clamped between my teeth. With the lower part of his left arm now left immobile, I drop it and concentrate on doing as much damage as possible before his right arm regenerates.

Grabbing onto the plate which protects the Armoured Titan's weak spot, I begin to pull it back. Slowly the join between the titan stone armour and the muscles beneath comes apart, releasing a thin trail of steam. Before I can get very far however the Armoured Titan jumps into the air. For a moment I'm confused, but a horrible realisation comes over me as he turns in mid air as if he were lying on his back. As we both come rushing back down towards the ground I shut my eyes and brace myself.

The impact isn't as bad as some of the ones I've experienced before. That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt like all hell. The fall itself would have left me dazed, but with the weight of the Armoured Titan pressed down on top of me it's far more devastating. I can feel my fingers get trapped between the armoured plate and the hard muscles underneath it. I let out a howl of pain as they're either crushed or in some cases partially severed. On top of that I think my rib cage was pounded in significantly as well.

With a painful huff I brace my legs in the small of his back and send the Armoured Titan hurtling off of me. He spins several times in mid air before landing with a crash. Looking down at myself I can see several unpleasant distortions and cuts around my chest, but apart from that and my now completely useless fingers nothing too serious. The Armoured Titan looks no better off, as he can move his right arm but his left still seems to be out of commission. I swallow nervously as the faint haze of steam rising from his left arm cuts out and he flexes his fingers experimentally.

I came close just then, but without Eren to help me I'm not sure I can win this. I briefly allow my gaze to flick over to where Eren and the Beast Titan are fighting. The Berserker Titan's armoured form is able to take much of the punishment the Beast Titan can deal out fairly well. However, if he takes a direct hit the Beast Titan appears to be capable of cracking his armour. Needless to say that's very disconcerting. Eren and I couldn't break that stuff with the most intense pressure we could manage applied straight for several minutes. We'd managed to crack it slightly with each of us pushing from one side during one of the Major's experiments but, it didn't come to much at the time.

As I watch the Berserker Titan ducks under a swing and slashes the Beast Titan across the chest with one of his 'claws'. The damage however seems to be negligible as the Beast Titan doesn't even react. Instead he grabs at the Berserker's arm as he withdraws it before slamming him into the ground. I don't get the chance to react properly to it as the Armoured Titan barrels into me.

I jump backwards but my reaction comes a little late. I'm bashed in mid air, sending me backwards and into a collapsed house. As I stagger back to my feet and away from the Armoured Titan I realise that I'm back in the main street. Glancing up and down it my eyes fall on a pair of huge red feet. I look up at the Colossal Titan who looms only fifty metres away from me.

'Hey there,' I think nervously as I gaze up at the behemoth. With a huge thundering roar the Colossal Titan brings back his right hand clenched into a fist. It might look slow as it comes hurtling down towards me, but in reality it's extremely fast. I get out of the way in time to avoid being crushed, but not in time to avoid being thrown into the air by the shockwave. I land with a loud crash and send a huge cloud of dust up into the air. I see the huge red pillar of a fist and forearm withdraw itself back to its former height.

Before I can start trying to scramble away the Armoured Titan hurtles into the road and smashes into me with a shoulder charge. I grab frantically at him as I'm thrown into the air, managing to seize hold of the plate on his right shoulder. As he comes to a stop I let go and skid backwards several meters. It doesn't feel like I've taken major damage from the impact, much to my amazement. Even so, this is ridiculous; we could fight like this for hours and get nowhere, even assuming Eren and I had the energy to last that long. We need help.

As if in answer to my thought there's a clicking and whirling sound off to my left. The Armoured Titan hears it too and turns his head to look. There's a rushing blur and a flash of steel before blood spurts from a wound in the Armoured Titan's right shoulder. Several more blurred shapes follow and each one leaves a grim trail of red. The Armoured Titan staggers backwards into a building that had up until now stood relatively intact. The poor remnant of the once picturesque city is crushed by the titan's falling form.

"Matthias is that you in there?" cries a woman's voice from the leftovers of a nearby rooftop.

'Yeah it's me,' I reply groggily. All the intense activity of the last twelve hours or so is leaving its mark on me. 'You've got good timing.'

"Where are Eren and the Captain?" demands Amanda sharply, switching to mental communication.

'We got separated from the rest of the squad just before we reached the city,' I explained. 'Eren is, somewhere over that way.' I wave vaguely in the direction of the second fight. Before any more words can be exchanged the Armoured Titan is back on his feet. Not wanting to lose the opportunity I rush forwards and smash my fist into the side of his neck between the armour plates. It sends him back into the dirt again. With a growl he swings wildly at me with his left hand (his right is presumably immobile). I jump backwards only to collide with a huge red foot.

The kick sends me hurtling into the air and I land with a crash some metres away. I flip back to my feet as fast I can, but I can feel weariness settling into my limbs now. All of this constant fighting and healing is rapidly wearing me down. I know I can't last much longer. 'Eren and I need some serious help,' I think to Amanda. 'Eren's on his third transformation so far today and both of us have been on the go non-stop. I don't think we can last much longer.'

"Well you have to!" replies Amanda. "Our forces are starting to enter the City, but the place is crawling with titans. Tell me you two got that gate plugged!"

'Yes it's done.'

"Thank God," she sighs. "We'll try to distract and help out where we can but-

Her thoughts are interrupted by a loud crash. 'What's happening?' I ask.

"Reiner took a shot at us!" snaps Amanda. With an internal sigh I start to run forward, back towards the fight.

"This isn't working you two!" snaps Levi from a pile of rubble that still maintains a certain level of structural integrity. "Casualties across the city are starting to spike and we still haven't gotten any closer to dealing with these three."

'We know,' I growl back mentally. I feel on the verge of collapse and I know Eren must be close to that as well. We've fallen back some way while a few Scouts engage to buy us a bit of time to recuperate and come up with a better plan of attack. 'With all due respect, sir, do you have any better ideas?' The lack of a response is just about what I expected.

"Hey," grunts Eren, "why don't you just do that trick again where you immobilise one of them?"

'That's, not a bad idea actually,' I concede. 'But which one?'

"The Beast of course," says Eren, as if it were obvious. "He's the biggest threat. We keep him out of the fight then I can deal with the other two so long as I have support."

I hastily explain Eren's plan to the Captain. He grunts. "It might work," he concedes. "I should be able to cut out some of the joints on our Armoured friend and Ackerman should be able to get in a few hits. Then it'd be up to you Yeager."

"Piece of cake," responds Eren. His confidence almost makes me laugh (that is if this body could laugh). Eren always has this way of assuming he can do something so long as he really needs to. I used to think it was foolish but, so far he always does exactly what it is he sets his mind to.

'I should probably point out that I'm not sure how my ability works,' I say, making sure both Eren and Levi can hear me. 'There's no way of knowing what will happen when I try this.'

"It can't be worse than our current situation," says Eren.

"Just get moving," is the First Captain's only reply.

As it happens we don't have to go anywhere; the enemy is coming straight to us. The Armoured and Beast Titans both barrel through the small amounts of thrice crushed wreckage in their way. "Buy all the time you want," says the Beast Titan, "In the end it'll come to nothing."

'I beg to differ.'

I jump to the side to dodge him as he charges me. As he flies past I grab onto him from behind and hold on frantically. The Beast Titan comes to a scrabbling stop and reaches back for me. I throw myself to the side, hit the ground and roll back towards him. I'm positioned now so that I'm staring straight up into his face. I concentrate as hard as I can and a bright beam of light connects our two foreheads together.

I find myself standing in the usual black void with my Titan looming over me. Before me is a smaller version of the Beast Titan, standing at about ten meters tall. He looks around in panic, "what have you done?" He asks in a voice filled with animalistic grunts.

"To be honest I'm not really sure how it works," I admit.

"You've bonded us," snarls the Beast Titan.

"Why am I talking to you instead of the person driving you?" I ask.

"Because I don't have a human driving me," he spits, as if the very idea is repugnant so to him.

"But I thought titans relied on a human being to exist?"

The Beast Titan grins, spreading his large number of teeth wide. "I never denied it."

"Then, who, why, how?" I stammer.

"It's really quite simple," says the Beast Titan. "I have a human, they just don't talk much."

"But, who is it?" I ask. The idea that someone is effectively being used as a slave by this titan disgusts me. Although right now I'm more stunned and disorientated than anything else.

Suddenly my titan stiffens and sniffs. "Special blood," it growls

"Yes, I suppose you could say that," nods the Beast Titan.

Then, as if on cue a human slumps onto the ground in front of the Beast Titan. He drops seemingly out of nowhere. There are chains attached to his wrists and ankles. The huge ape-like monster grins down at the helpless man. He looks weak, beaten and disheveled. My heart wells up with pity for this poor wretch, and then anger begins to course through me. "What sort of sick creature are you?" I hiss in disgust.

"I suppose something of a parasite," admits the Beast Titan. "But then humans are so pathetic. My kin and I however are better; we are the next step. We are free."

"No," moans the broken man. "You're not free, you're broken. You're misshapen efforts at something better."

"Silence!" Hisses the Beast Titan. "You would dare to question the beauty of my lord's creations?!"

"You better believe it," groans the man.

"Wait a second," I more or less whisper as I edge a little close to get a better look. "Do, do I know you?" I ask the man.

He looks up at me with a worn pair of eyes, sunk into his head. He looks at me for a moment, then his gaze lights up in recognition. "Matthias!" He croaks. "Oh Matthias I thought I'd never see you again!" Tears have begun to run down his face.

I gasp and put a hand to my mouth. "D-Dad?" I stammer.

"Oh be quite Quinn," snaps the Beast Titan. "You're going to ruin my appetite."

"Let him go," I snarl.

"I most certainly will not," retorts the Beast Titan, grabbing my adopted father by his chains and dragging him away behind him. "Should I lose him I will lose my physical body and there where would I be?"

"Dead, where you should be," I growl.

"Well no, it isn't quite that simple," he corrects, with the air of an academic. "But I have no intentions of discussing my origins with you. Now then, I think this nonsense has gone on quite long enough." Suddenly he lets out a roar and charges. Instinctively I dive to the side and put my hands over my head. There's a crashing noise behind me and I look up to see 'my titan' grappling with the Beast Titan. My titan is far smaller however, is quickly thrown to the ground. "I wonder what happens in the real world if I crush you in this one?" ponders the Beast Titan absentmindedly. "Oh well," he says as he advances, "only one way to find out."

I scramble desperately backwards, focusing on ending the mental link as hard as I can. There's a brilliant flash and I'm back in my titan body again. And unfortunately I'm underneath him. The Beast Titan blinks twice, and then grins. "Hello there," he growls. He immediately pulls back a fist to pulverise me.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," warns a cold voice from behind his back. The Beast Titan freezes stock still. "That's right," says the Captain, "Just keep perfectly still and no one gets hurt." I hurriedly slide out from underneath the hairy creature and scramble several steps back. Captain Levi is perched comfortably on the Beast Titan's back, with both of his blades set just against the skin of his nape.

Before I can do so much as look about myself, the Beast Titan's body releases a huge blast of high pressure steam. Levi is sent flying backwards. He fires his cables but the force of the blast rips them out. Then the fur covered titan is on his feet. Looking around himself with wild eyes he huffs steam out from his jaws. Instantly he makes a dash for the Wall. "Stop him!" Someone shouts.

A few Scouts try to swoop in and cut the Beast Titan's legs out from under him, but he swats them away like flies. I start to run after him, but I already know catching him is impossible. The space between us widens rapidly and in a few minutes the Beast Titan reaches the Wall. He leaps up and digging his fingers into the stone begins to climb. By the time I've covered half the distance he's over the Wall and gone. I skid to a stop admits the shattered pieces of stone and timber.

I look around to see the Berserker Titan having stopped just a few (titan) steps away. 'Dam it!'

"What the hell was that steam thing?" Asks Eren silently, turning his titan's constantly menacing gaze in my direction.

'No idea,' I hiss in frustration. 'It must be a new ability we didn't know about.' I look back to where I can see a great circle of demolished buildings, but neither the Armoured or Colossal Titans. 'Please tell me you got them.'

"Ugh, yes and no," grunts Eren in irritation. "We got Reiner but when he realised he was losing the Colossal Titan and exploded and Bertolt took off."

My gaze scans over the shattered buildings. They were ruined when we got here. Now they've more or less been reduced to dust. The fight levelled a vast amount of what was left of Shiganshina' and there are still titans wandering the streets. 'Our jobs not done yet is it?' I ask Eren.

The Berserker Titan shakes his head. "No. There are hundreds of titans in the area. Without cannons it'll take hours and thousands of lives to clear them out. We on the other hand..."

'...we should have the majority cleared out before midday,' I finish. 'No rest for the weary huh?'

"Nope," growls Eren. The Berserker turns to look at an approaching twelve metre. "Least kills buys the drinks?"

'I'll take that,' I reply. We might have several hours of mopping up to do but we've done it. Shiganshina has been retaken.

Okay guys I am back! I realise it's been awhile since my last update for this story. To tell the truth I was suffering from writers block and just got fed up with trying and failing to advance the plot anymore. But just recently I went back over some of my old stuff and I remembered how much I love this story, and how much I would hate it if I were reading it only to have it suddenly cut out. So, I'm seeing this one through to the end, even if it kills me! I hope people will still want to read it despite my long absence, for which I apologise. Even so things are going to be a bit rough since my computer has died and this is all being written using an iPad. Still, it's good to be back.


	10. Wall Maria Part 6

Chapter 8: Wall Maria Part 6: Aftershock

I don't climb out of my titan, I fall out. I only just manage to hook the back of the disintegrating carcass just in time to avoid hitting the ground. After that I just lie splayed out in the dust, utterly exhausted. There's a loud "ahem!" from off to my left which prompts me to open my eyes. Victor is looking down at me with a raised eyebrow. "You realise this is still a combat zone right?" He asks.

"Sorry sir," I groan, as I sit up and rub my eyes. I can feel a rushing hot-cold sensation behind my eyes and I feel dizzy. "I uh, may need to pass out though," I say groggily, putting both hands to my forehead.

"There'll be time for that later," says Victor. "At any rate you can't do it here. The greater majority of the titans in the area are dead, and we've started to secure the cannons, but the city is far from totally secure. The middle of the street is not the safest place for a nap." Reluctantly I let him haul me to my feet and lead me away from the steaming mound behind me.

The world seems out of focus as we trudge through smashed, burnt and generally ruined streets. I have to keep my eyes trained on the ground because the sunlight suddenly seems ten times brighter than normal. It turns the entire sky white when I look up and gives me the worst headache I've had in a long time. On top of that I keep feeling as if I'm going to be sick. At some point Victor hands me on to someone else who I think is a medic, but I really have no idea. Everything starts to blend together for me, with all surrounding light becoming brilliant white so I have to close my eyes. Eventually we reach the foot of the Wall. The person with me urges me to try and use my gear to climb but, I don't even have the strength to tell them I can't make it. In the end I get carried up to the top where there are dozens of people milling about. I slump down with my back against an ammunition crate and close my eyes.

My eyes flicker open to a rush of golden light. I blink several times in an effort to clear my gaze. There are still dozens of soldiers rushing about, carrying various boxes, bundles and in a few cases what look unpleasantly like bodies. A huge jolt goes through me as the air is split by a deafening crack. I sit bolt upright and reach for my blades in panic, but no one else seems to be reacting to the noise. Then it comes again, and again and again. Then I groan at my own stupidity as I realise it's cannon fire. There should still be titans in the surrounding area, so it's no wonder the cannons are in use.

With a long drawn out sigh I heave myself upright. There's an instant pressure against my head, but after I stand still for a few seconds it goes. Without any particular location in mind I start walking along the Wall, blankly watching as soldiers rush past me. I walk past a lot of people hunched over and silent. Even hours after the main battle must have ended, there are still people in shock. I can't say I blame them. After Trost dozens of even the experienced soldiers went into a stunned silence, while some had full blown panic attacks. In a battle against the Titans, there's a lot more screaming after the battle than during. A few are crying while some just gaze gravely towards the ground far below. I'm dreading finding out what the casualty count is.

All of this to the backdrop of cannon fire, which serves as a constant reminder to those crouching in fear that things are far from over. Shiganshina is ours but, in realistic terms it's only a very, very small step towards victory. The Titans hold the entire world while we only hold a measly 250,000 square kilometres or so, most of which is still in dispute. Granted that's still no small pocket but, when you compare it to the global scale-which even conservative estimates place at well over 10 million square kilometres-it seems dauntingly insignificant. If we have to take back each part of the world piece by piece, it'll be thousands of years before this is over. Plus, we'd have to do it without the Walls to use as a secure jumping off point. That's why we have to hope that there's a better way.

I stop only a few steps away from the now stoppered gate. Countless kilometres of rolling hills, mountains, forests, lakes and who knows what else stretch off into the distance. If the little I can remember of the geography I was taught when I was a child is correct, the land eventually stops at the sea which goes on for untold leagues until it reaches other strange lands. There were, how many continents? I can't remember but there are meant to be several. The idea of a world so large is unspeakably daunting. And all of it filled with titans.

"Hey, Matthias is that you?" asks someone behind me.

"Sasha?" I ask as I turn to look at her. She looks tired, like everyone else.

"Are you okay?" She asks. "You look a bit distant."

"Just thinking," I reply idly.

"So uh, this is where you used to live huh?"

"For a little while yeah," I nod.

"It's a bit of a mess now."

"Yeah it is. I suppose some of that is kinda my fault," I add, rubbing the back of my neck. "How are you feeling after all that?"

"Oh you know," says Sasha with a wide wave of her hand. "It's nothing we haven't seen before right?"

"Maybe not." She bites her lip nervously. "What is it?"

"Not everyone is, well fine," she admits in a husky voice.

I suppose I should react in some way, except I can't seem to find the energy. "Who?" is all I ask.

"Armin and Jean are both in the field hospital," she says, eyes trained on the clear white stone surface beneath her feet, stained red by the setting sun. "I haven't been able to see them since I had to take a quick trip there myself." She taps on a bandage wrapped around her left hand. It looks like a rushed job, probably to make way for the next in a long line of cases. "I'm not really sure how bad it is but, when I was there, there was a lot of blood." I can feel something settle into the pit of my stomach and stay there. "You know it's funny," says Sasha in a tone of voice that implies it's anything but. "For once in my life, I'm not hungry. Weird how it only took countless brushes with death and seeing my friends devoured and crushed to do it."

I don't say anything to that. "Anyway, shouldn't you be at the HQ or something?" Sasha asks, deliberately changing the subject.

"I honestly have no idea," I sigh. "I passed out not long after getting out of my titan. For the last half hour I've just been wandering aimlessly."

"Well, you probably should go find it," says Sasha. "Major Hange will want to debrief you or whatever."

"Hange?"

"Commander Erwin is currently MIA from what I've heard. Some people say he's dead but they just don't want to let everyone know it yet. At the moment though he's just one of over a hundred apparently." She sighs and looks back over the scorched and shattered city. "They've set up their HQ above the inner gate," she says, pointing in that direction. "You should probably get going."

"Thanks Sasha," I say, stepping towards the edge of the Wall. "Take care of yourself."

"You too."

I jump off and free fall towards the ground far below. Just before impact I hook onto an old wooden beam and take a sharp turn upwards. I fly smoothly through the air, letting the cool breeze flow softly over my skin. In the shadow of the Walls it's basically already night time, despite the way in which the sky is lit up. It's eerie the way the huge structures plunge the cities into a world of darkness that stands contrary to the world around them. When my mother and I first came to Shiganshina I thought it was terrifying. It didn't take long to get used to however. Now it just feels like another variable of the atmosphere. Time dulls everything given enough of it.

The air rushes past me as I glide smoothly and rapidly down the main road. Hooking from one pile of rubble to the next. In an effort to take my mind of the gloom I can feel settling in I start to perform a few stunts in the air. Some flips, sharp turns, mid air spins. At one point I manage to line up a shot so well I catapult myself thirty meters into the air. From here I can see the city laid out neatly. I can also see where netting has been thrown over the inner gate as a preventative measure to help keep more titans from entering the city. Several cannons have also been set up in the middle of the road itself with a clear line of fire to the gate. The artillery pieces mounted on the Wall itself are still firing. Odds are they won't fall totally silent for weeks to come.

After another few minutes of gliding along I judge I'm close enough to hook directly to the Wall itself. Crossing the city on ODMs is much faster when one doesn't have to keep a look out for titans. A skilled user can cross the area in matter of ten minutes or so. It would normally take up to half an hour under combat conditions. I fire to a point about a quarter of the way up and swing myself in a circular motion. As I near the apex of my curve I let go of my hook and fire another one higher up. I repeat the process twice more before leaving myself a small space over which to slow down and make my landing more precise.

A few of the Scouts in the area look up as I land, but quickly switch their attention back to whatever it is that they're doing. In many cases that's no more than just sitting around. It's strange how, despite the immense accomplishment we've made today, no one seems to be celebrating, or even cheerful. I think about the carnage wrought by the ambush just before we reached the city-which I saw only a small part of-and I understand why. This victory feels hollow for the time being. Maybe after we've all had a chance to let things sink in it'll be better.

The 'HQ' seems to be little more than a group of officers with several maps and documents payed out on several boxes. As I get close Hange looks up from this scattered mess of paper. "Oh thank goodness!" She exclaims. "I was worrying that we'd lost you somewhere Matthias."

"No sir," I reply simply.

"Well, that makes one out of seventy five," sighs the Major. "In case you haven't heard by now Major-General Erwin is registered as MIA," she continues. "However, we all know that if he was able to reestablish contact with us he'd have already done it."

"You think he's dead?"

Hange fixes a bitter look on me. "There's still a chance that he's wounded somewhere, but I don't hold much hope."

"What about Armin and Jean; I was told they'd been taken wounded?" I ask, a hint of urgency creeping into my voice.

"Don't take this the wrong way Matthias," begins Hange. "But I have bigger things to worry about than the condition of an NCO and low ranking officer. However promising."

With difficulty I manage to bite my tongue. "Right, of course. Sorry sir."

"They're your friends, there's nothing to apologise for." I've got nothing to say to that. "Now then," continues Hange, her voice picking up into a much brisker tone. "Thanks to you and Eren the outer gate is sealed up nice and tight. Of course that will make it impossible for it to ever be used again but that's hardly our greatest concern as of this moment. The space within Wall Maria is essentially ours now, although we won't be ready to repopulate for several more months. It'll take a long time to lure in a eradicate all of the titans still wandering around out there. But of course," she continues, her eyes taking on that maniacal glint reserved for her favourite topics, "The best part is that we finally have our hands on an enemy titan-shifter we can get at!"

"Try to remember that he needs to be interrogated before you start cutting him open," points out Levi in a bored voice from his place by the map 'table'.

"Ah, but there won't be any harm in conducting a few preliminaries will there," replies the excited Major.

"You could probably use it as an effective form of leverage," pipes up Major Harold Zukhov. "Offer to reduce the time he has to spend with the Major in exchange for information."

"Don't you dare!" Snaps Hange spinning to face him. This brings smiles to a few faces. Levi just rolls his eyes.

"Can we get back to the point?" He asks irritably.

"Ah yes!" Exclaims Hange, turning on her heel. "So to cut out all of the boring statistics, apart from casualties making up roughly 15% of the Regiment we're golden."

"Fifteen percent?" I gasp.

Hange's face turns a little more serious. "We all knew that casualties for an operation of this scale would be high," she says. "No one can say that they didn't know what they were going into."

"That doesn't change the fact that none of them believed us when we warned them," says Levi. "We tried to get the point across but the fools convinced themselves we were just talking big to scare them. They've doubtless had a rude awakening by this time."

"Levi!" Snaps Zukhov with a glare. "They've been traumatised. Try and show some sympathy."

The Captain's usual response would just be a grunt of disinterest, but this time, something's different. "They're soldiers," he replies grimly. "We are told time and time again about the risks and the fallout from fighting the Titans. Soldiers kill and are in turn killed in accordance with their orders. There's an old saying; ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die! So don't expect me to feel sorry for any person who could be stupid enough to think that this line of work would be anything other than what was advertised. No one should ever step into the boots of a soldier and expect to live their life peacefully, or happily!"

There's total silence after Levi's outburst. Of course, if it had come from anyone else it wouldn't have been called an outburst. The entire time the Captain barely raised his voice. But in comparison to his usual almost toneless style of speech this was like screaming. After a few moments Levi grunts in disgust. "I'll check to see how clean-up's progressing," he says before stepping nimbly off the Wall to drop down to the city below.

"Huh, wonder who ruffled his feathers?" ponders Zukhov. "He's not normally so voluble on a subject."

"He feels sad," I say without thinking. Everyone looks at me in surprise. "Oh sorry," I say hastily, "I know I'm not supposed to read other people's emotions without permission but, it was practically screaming at me. He feels sad about something, I don't know what though."

"Erwin," says Hange simply. "Erwin was something of an older brother, maybe even a father figure to him. That man changed his life around, and now he's gone and we don't even have a body. I wish he'd been here to see this." For the first time since I first set eyes on her, Zoe Hange looks sad. I've seen her throw fits before but that's not the same. Now she's quiet, and it's more than a little unnerving.

After several moments of silence I decide I need to speak up. "Um, sir?" I prompt. "What do you want me to do?"

"Right now nothing," says Hange calmly. "Go see your friends in the hospital Matthias. It's centred around an open square not far from the canal, close to south end. Then, get some sleep. Tomorrow we've got a few secrets to unearth."

"Yes sir," I say, before saluting and walking away. I look back to see the Major still standing there looking down at the city. Whether it's towards the sunset or just after her fellow officer I have no idea.

"I'm looking for an Armin Arlert and Jean Kirstein," I inform the medic as I manage to catch him on his way from one patient to another.

"Ah yes," he says with a knowing nod. "You'll find them down towards the end there."

"Thank you," I say before turning to hurry.

"Oh and by the way," adds the man before I can take too many steps. "Thanks. You probably didn't know this but, you saved my niece during the Female Titan's rampage through Stohess."

That catches me very much by surprise. It didn't feel like I was protecting anyone in Stohess, all I was aware of was trying to take down Annie. "You're welcome," is all I can really manage. The man smiles and moves away.

I hurry over in the direction I've been prompted. What I find is two mock up beds made up of cloaks with bundled up jackets for pillows. Eren is slumped against a nearby building with his legs pulled up. Mikasa sits next to him with her hand on his shoulder. Just four months ago Eren would never have allowed that. The two pale figures on the 'beds' send chills down my spine. The cloaks are covered in blood, now dried to an almost black crust.

I squat down to the closest one. A pair of tired looking blue eyes turn towards to me. "Hey Armin," I manage, trying to keep my voice as cheerful and reassuring as possible.

The blonde manages a weak smile. "Hey Matthias," he replies. "It's good to see you're all right."

"Oh you know, healing powers and all that," I mutter lamely. "How are you feeling?"

"Not so bad as when it happened," says Armin. He's speaking quietly but he's not rasping at all, which hopefully means there's no damage to his throat or lungs. "My stomach hurts if I move around too much but I think I'm fine."

"What, what exactly happened?" I ask, swallowing hard.

"It was stupid really," he mutters. "I got grabbed and bitten. Thankfully the titan went down before it could sever anything. I think my spine's damaged though, my legs feel a bit numb and I have trouble moving them around much. Apart from that it's just a few bruises."

"Well, I probably shouldn't be disturbing you," I say.

"No, it's fine," says Armin. "I'm not as badly hurt as everyone seems to think. I'm sure I'll be up and about in no time."

"The sooner the better," I say with the best smile I can manage.

The second figure I don't make a move to disturb. I can tell from the fact that the blanket falls off far to soon that Jean's injuries are pretty bad. I can remember when I lost part of my leg to the Female Titan. It was a horrible experience. In the end I grew it back. I doubt Jean will be so lucky. One quick look at his ash grey face is enough to convince me to let him sleep.

"Hey," I say as I sit down next to Eren.

"I figured that if we won," begins Eren, not looking at me, "Then we'd be celebrating. This doesn't feel like the field of victory, it feels like a graveyard."

I exchange looks with Mikasa. Her eyes are somewhat glum but nothing compared to everyone else's. She actually seems somewhat, pleased. Good, at least someone is. "We did achieve a task everyone thought was impossible," I point out. "We've retaken Wall Maria. The end can't be far off now."

"One way, or the other," adds Eren, turning his emerald eyes towards me.


	11. The Cellar

Chapter 9: The Cellar

There's a slight crunching noise as charred wood splinters under my boot. The blackened substance-worn down by six years of exposure to the elements-cracks into smaller versions of itself, which are ground into the cobbles. The pale (almost white) grey of the road is turning dark, bit by bit, as the condensation from the dark mass above my head splatters over it.

I spare a quick glance at the piece of building material I've just trodden on, more out of habit than actual care or concern. There's debris everywhere just here. It's as if someone decided that they needed a new road to run through at an angle to the first one, and so used some monstrous kind of machinery to carve it through the buildings in its way. It's a road made by giants, and much of Shiganshina lies in pieces in its wake.

It'll take years for the city to even resemble what it used to be. My gaze turns blank, staring at the black splinters under my foot but not seeing them. I remember how suddenly the entire city seemed immeasurably vast and filled with so many occurrences that tracking even those immediately around me was impossible. I didn't bother to try of course, I just ran. The only directions I looked were ahead and over my shoulder. I could hear them all around me. Screams as those who had not worked up the courage to run from their homes were exposed to the towering menaces. Giant feet pounding, over and over in an unending rhythm. I was convinced at that point that I was going to die, but I didn't. Well, I suppose that's rather obvious. I lived, and lived and lived. And now, even when so many have been killed, I'm still here. The smell of blood, the way it can sting at the back of your throat; that's a memory I'll carry with me forever.

The odour right now is decidedly different. Damp wood mostly, that comforting yet at the same time stale smell hangs in the air. There's the occasional trace of the other smells rain brings, that heady, somewhat metallic atmosphere it creates. It quite light for the time being, I can feel it settling on my skin in a fine vapour. It makes me want to blink incessantly and rub my eyes.

A sigh-thin rush of air that it is-whooshes by my ear. I turn my head to see its source and am surprised by the way the grey eyes are staring forlornly at the ruined city. I don't say anything, since it's pretty rare for the Captain to have contemplative moments from what I've heard, and I don't want to disturb him. "So much information," he murmurs.

"What?" I can't help asking.

"Have you ever thought about how much information each human being is carrying around in their heads?" asks Levi, not looking at me. "There's their life experiences of course but, there's also every idle thought, every dream, every imaginary place or person. Think about how much information there is your own head, really, think about it." He pauses, as if giving me time to do so. "Now, think about how many people there are alive right now. Most of them have at least as much information as you do, if not more. Can you comprehend how much that is?"

I shake my head. "I can barely understand how much I know," I mutter.

"Think of how much has been lost in this city alone," says Levi, his voice far away. "Most of it useless and not worth the time it would take to speak it aloud but, it would have been worth something to its owner. Now, it's all gone."

"They say God is supposed to know everything every human thinks," I say, just like Levi, more to myself than to him. "Imagine what kind of a being you'd have to be to know so much." The Captain lets out a non-committal grunt. "Sir," I being nervously, "I hope I'm not out of line by asking but, do you believe in a god?"

"After everything I've seen, I'd say I do. The only thing is, I wish they'd do more instead leaving it to us to look after ourselves." Then, as suddenly he came, the contemplative Levi is gone. He turns to look at me, eyes hard. "There's no time to waste just standing around," he snaps, "We've got somewhere to be." He sets off at a brisk pace.

"Uh, yes sir," I stammer. Still a little thrown by the Captain's odd mood swing, I hurry after him.

"You're certain this is the place?" asks Hange.

"Yes sir, completely," replies Eren. His voice is a little on the grim side, but I can sense the edge of anticipation in it.

"I can't say I'm very impressed Yeager," says Levi, looking at the smashed and torn up heap of rubble with a raised eyebrow. "I've seen houses in the under cities that were better than this." Eren ignores him, though his fist clenches a little.

"We're not here for the house," points out the Major. She hastily picks her way over several beams and rocks, which have spilled into the street like the guts of some dead animal. "This is what we're here for," she says, gesturing almost proudly to the small half sunken shelter.

"At least it's not in too many pieces," mutters Levi with a grunt as he clambers up onto the 'plateau' of the pulverised house, long grained habits driving him to higher ground.

I feel my stomach twist into knots at the sight of the door. It's been caved in by what I can only assume was a kick from a massive foot. This basement (like pretty much every other in the city) has been opened up and searched. Hange eagerly pokes her head inside and looks around. There's a "hmm," followed by a "uh oh." The acting commander of the Scout Regiment (probably for good this time) turns around to face the rest of the group with a worried frown. "I don't want to alarm anyone," she says, "but it's sort of, empty."

"What!" gasps Eren. He dashes up to the door and more or less dives inside. I quickly follow him, followed much more slowly by Levi. I stop in the doorway and look down into the small chamber. Broken crates and racks lie scattered on the flagstone floor, collateral damage from a titan shifter's impatient search efforts. The room itself is about two meters deep in the ground, with a set of stone steps leading down into it. Eren is standing dumbfounded in the middle of the wooden mess.

"There's nothing here," he whispers. "We came all this way, for nothing."

"Hey," I say, hastily descending the steps to my friend's side. "Don't give up so easily. We don't know there's nothing here yet."

"Oh don't kid yourself Matthias!" he snaps, rounding on me angrily. "Those two tore this place apart; there's no way they missed anything that might have been here!" The flash of fire in his eyes dies down quickly and his shoulders slump. "Dam it!" he hisses.

Hange is looking through the debris, but from the look on her face I can tell she's not hopeful. "Eren's probably right," she sighs, "It's unlikely Reiner and Bertolt missed anything that might have been valuable."

"That's assuming it was there for them to find," says Levi. We all look at him questioningly. "You're all assuming that whatever this information is, it was just stored in the middle of the room or something. If whatever this is, is as important as we think, Yeager's father's unlikely to have just left it in plain sight. He'd want more security than just a locked door. Which reminds me," he continues, training his gaze on Eren. "That key Yeager, let me see it."

Confused Eren takes out the key from around his neck. Hesitantly he hands it over to the Captain. Levi inspects it for several seconds, then turns to the smashed remains of the door in the middle of the floor. He takes the two steps necessary to reach it in the confined area, bends down and looks at something intently. "Just what I thought," he says, "This key, it doesn't fit the lock on this door."

"What?!" we all exclaim more or less in synchronisation.

"Le' me see!" orders Hange, snatching the key and bending over the door. She lets out a delighted laugh. "He's right! The key doesn't fit the door! In which case," she holds the golden tool up to the dulled rays of sunlight falling into the room, "what does it fit?"

"Check the walls," orders Levi bruskley, turning on the spot to begin tapping at the pale stone blocks behind him. "First place to check after the furniture is the walls," he murmurs, the normally negligible sound amplified by the small echoy chamber, to the point where it becomes as loud as plain speech.

Eren and I stare at each other for several moments. I shrug, and then we both take several steps towards the edges of the small stone room. Hange stands in the centre of the chamber still, examining the key more intently. I hear Eren huff in annoyance at the Major's lack of obvious activity. I don't particularly care; it's a pretty small room after all so there's barely enough space for the three of us to scrabble over the cold, mouldy smelling walls.

Doing my best to copy the Captain's system, I wrap my knuckles against each individual stone (presumably to listen for an echo) before pressing on each of the corners to see if it gives at all. After about twelve of these I shake my right hand out, attempting to force the small pockets of pain that have started to build up in my hand, out into the air. I have little success and resign myself to more hand bashing on the wall.

I've just gotten to my twenty-fifth one when Hange lets out a loud "Hmmmm." Now, I'm still not totally confident with the Major's wordless statements but, I'm fairly sure this one means "I want someone to ask me what this is so I can explain it." Either that or it's nothing. Since my hands are starting to go red from the rough hewn surfaces they've been impacting on, I'm more than happy to find an excuse to (at least temporarily) turn away from my task.

"Major?" I ask.

"There are four little transparent beads set into this key," she says, not bothering to turn her profile to face me front on. "At first I thought they were glass but, I think they might be something else."

"Like what?" asks Levi, pausing to lean against the wall.

"It's hard to say really. Just the way the light refracts through seems, wrong," she muses. "I admit I don't specialise in physics so I'm not an expert on light but, I'm fairly certain that it shouldn't scatter so much when there are so few facets. Plus, these gems are a kind of white that reminds me a little of those crystals we took from the Titan Cave."

"The ones we've been using for lamp lights?" asks Eren, bemused.

"Yes," is all the Major says in reply, her voice growing a little distant. "I wonder if that's significant."

With a sigh I lean back against the wall, disappointed that the new information isn't actually very useful after all. The snapping click which comes from behind my head, freezes me like a wild animal before it breaks into a survival run. Everyone's heads turn to face my direction, and I slowly prize myself away from the structure behind me. One of the blocks has clicked about a centimetre into the wall surrounding it.

Levi nudges me to the side and steps up. He pushes delicately on the left edge of the stone, and it turns. The grey slab rotates on the spot, around some unseen fixture to reveal a tiny chamber inside of the wall. Within are two pieces of fading paper and a fist sized package wrapped up in oil skin. Slowly, the Captain reaches inside and draws out all three items.

He quickly scans over both documents. "You'll want these," he says to Eren, holding the two sheets out to him. "Last Will and Testament and a letter addressed to you." Swallowing nervously, Eren takes the two papers. He only glances over the Will-which makes sense since quintessentially all of his father's possessions are gone with the destruction of his home-but spends ample amounts of time reading through the letter. With a slow hiss of air he covers his face with one hand in an effort to keep his emotions contained. Seven seconds pass before he's more or less himself again.

"What's it say?" asks Hange. "Besides personal stuff of course; that's not important." Levi and I both give her a 'seriously' look. "Uh, not important to us I mean," she corrects hastily.

"Not much," says Eren, his voice husky around the edges. "He says that whatever that thing is, is called a Kioku. It's meant to let you see things," he explains with a vague wave of the hand, "Apparently making it has something to do with using the Coordinate power to impose your will on it or something."

"Do you mind if I...?" asks the Major gaze trained intently on the yellowed sheet. After a moment's reluctance Eren nods and hands it over.

"Mmmhmm," she hums, eyes scanning over the black markings. "Your dad had very neat hand-writing for what it's worth," she mutters. "It more or less says just what you said. I think the best thing would be to examine this, Kioku. I like that, flips off the tongue doesn't it?" She nods to Levi who rips away the string holding the skin packet together. The light brown cloth falls away, unable to contain its treasure without the help of its partner.

Inside is a single white gem, of a size that could easily be cupped in the hand. In the back of my mind I reflect that it would be perfectly sized for throwing. The gem emits a faint glow of white light, disrupted at times by a swirling golden mass at its centre. "It's a Titan Gem," says Hange at once and with total certainty. "But, it looks different to any of the ones from the Cave."

As I stare into the swirling golden depths, I start to lose myself. The shape inside is like a river of some kind, except it flows in three dimensions rather than two. Then, I realise I can hear whispers coming from it. I pull myself away sharply and look around at the others. They all look at me with some concern. "Can, can no one else hear that?" I ask, finding to my surprise that I'm a little shaken.

Hange shakes her head, "it's probably a result of your titan powers Matthias," she says.

"Can I uh, have a look please?" I ask, holding out my hand hopefully.

"Why?" asks Levi, a hint of wariness entering his voice.

"I can hear all of these whispers when I look directly at the," I pause as I try to remember the word. "Kioku," I finish as the name pops back to the forefront of my mind, "I want to see if they'll clear up if I make physical contact."

"I'm not so sure that's such a good idea," councils Hange. "We don't have any idea what this thing actually does yet."

"Eren's father wouldn't leave us something dangerous would he?" I reason. "If this thing is supposed to show you stuff, then maybe touching it is the catalyst. It has been for a lot of other things." Hange still looks reluctant.

Suddenly something inside of me snaps. It's as if I've spent the entire day being harassed and have finally been pushed over the limit. I catch everyone by surprise by lashing out and snatching at the gem. Levi reacts quickly to the sudden moment, snapping away like a startled cat. It isn't fast enough however, to keep my fingers from grazing the Kioku's surface.

Everything disappears in a flash of white light.

I blink my eyes open as the intense flash begins to fade. A figure starts to come into focus just in front of me. Dark hair, well worn clothes, green eyes. Eren looks around himself blearily. "Wh-what did you do?" he asks, his voice not yet holding any accusation, only disorientation.

"I'm not sure," I admit. "I just felt, really angry that they wouldn't let me touch it so, I took matters into my own hands. Then, everything disappeared." I gesture to the vast swathes of empty white around us.

"Do you think we might have shifted or something?" asks Eren.

"I don't know, I hope not," I reply. "Levi and Hange were standing awfully close by." This prompts a grimace from Eren at the thought of accidently crushing the two officers during a transformation.

After a moment he shakes his head. "Nah, there's no hot, sticky feeling," he says. "That's always around when we change, even if we can't see, or control our bodies."

"In that case, where are we?" I ask. The utter silence which follows my statement is eerie, with no wind or movements of small life forms to break it. Not even the noise of our breathing makes itself known.

"You touched the Kioku right?" confirms Eren. I nod. "My dad said it was meant to show us things."

"I'm not seeing very much right now," I say, "Just you, me and an awful lot of white. Why is everything in these psychic things always taking place in the middle of an abyss of some kind? I guess your brain doesn't have anything to fill in the rest of the scene with," I say, answering my own question.

"Think we have to wai-

Eren stops part way through, jumping and looking over my shoulder. I whirl around to see a shadowy figure walking towards us. Then a second one appears next to it. As the two apparitions grow closer they come rapidly into focus. Unlike in Eren's case, the rest of the white space around them begins to clear up as well. A red carpeted floor, creamy walls and a series of overtly noble portraits lining said walls all fade into being.

The two men are dressed in dark jackets which stop, just above the waist to give way to creamy trousers. Long tails continue down at the back to about knee height. The collars part to reveal a brilliant concoction of white frills at the neck, which almost seem to be choking them both. Black boots of almost knee height coated their feet, and high collars add to the tightened up appearance created by the overt frills. The fashion is very strange compared to modern attire, though I get the feeling that it is somewhat familiar.

The two men ignore Eren and I, striding straight between us without so much as a glance in either of our directions. They round a newly materialised corner, and vanish from sight, engrossed in an unknown conversation.

The two of us are now standing in the middle of a very expensive looking corridor. Our hard worn Scout uniforms look very out of place, and leave me feeling somewhat self conscious. But I know this place; I was here only a month ago. "It's the palace," I gasp.

"Are you sure?" asks Eren, still staring dumbfounded after the two men in the outlandish clothes.

"I grew up in this building, I know it when I see it," I affirm.

"But that's impossible isn't it?" he asks.

Before I can say anything a small object of about two and half feet in height, comes hurtling around the corner the two men just turned. The child tears past Eren and I, ignoring us just like the two men. It's a small boy, dressed up a bit like a miniature version of one of the two adults, except somewhat less constricting and in deep blue with a trim that looks like it's in gold. Barely a moment later, a second child comes hurtling around the corner, presumably following the first. This one is a little girl of roughly the same height, dressed in a brilliant white dress. Her blonde hair is braided and streaming out behind her as she runs. "Edmund!" she gasps, "slow down!"

I feel my blood run cold.


End file.
